Manzanar
by Gemini Star01
Summary: Kouji and Kouichi find themselves in a JapaneseAmerican interment camp in World War 2 California. They're certain that the Digimon have something to do with thier coming here, but to what end?
1. 1942

Hm…I've always had an interest in World War Two. This is just something odd I wrote up, and my friend Heather got addicted to it, so I kept going. It's weird. Just weird. Hope you like.

"Japanese"

"_Thinking"_

"English"

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kouji, Kouichi or anything else involved with Digimon Frontier. I'm just a bit of a history buff._

**Manzanar**

**Chapter 1: 1942**

The line that marched briskly toward the barbed-wire fences could have been called single file. That is to say, there was at least one person behind and in front of each other in a somewhat-straight formation. It was the other people clustered around each of the filed leaders that made it more of a mob.

Wives, wrapped in shawls and cloaks and as many extra layers as they could, clung to their husband's arms as the men continued forward, stone-faced. Small children rode in pouches or gripped their mother's clothing as they whimpered in fear. Teenagers and the unmarried youths walked with heads up and shoulders down, like some kind of elite guard, protecting their families by drawing the suspicious, ever-watching eyes of the green-clothed army men beside them, each barring a frightful black weapon in preparation for any hypothetical resistance.

All of the marchers shared the same traits: Dark eyes, dark hair, fine yellow-brown skin and small, stocky builds. And amongst it all, a boy who had only recently reached the age of fourteen stumbled haphazardly.

Kouichi Kimura was confused, to say the very least. First off, his mind was rather ashamed of itself at the moment: he'd fallen asleep in history class, something he'd been sure never to do before. But his self-scolding was pushed aside when he had woken to find himself sitting, not in his plastic seat, but in a modified livestock car jammed-pack with people, and moments later they were herded out into the dusty earth stretching out beneath the gaze of several deep blue mountains far in the distance. Now he was stumbling towards the frightening camp in front of them, trying futilely to keep up with a family he did not have.

"_What's going on?" _His mind gasped past low coughs that struggled from his throat. "_Where am I?"_

He stumbled and fell, hitting the hard ground. He lifted himself painfully, examining his scraped hands and bleeding left knee, not noticing the guard that stopped to watch him suspiciously.

"Up you get, kid." The guard reached down and yanked him to his feet, pushing him back into the crowd. Kouichi stumbled again, but kept moving as the butt of the rifle nudged him in the small of the back.

The boy gulped slightly against his dry throat, gazing nervously at a sign hanging not far from the fence itself. He thought it might have said 'Mans an are', but it was written in roman letters, so he couldn't be sure. Whatever was happening to him, it wasn't a dream…the stinging pain in his hands and knee made that obvious. But if it wasn't a dream, what was it? And where were they all going…?"

"Get your hands off me!"

Kouichi spun around at the familiar voice from behind. Not too far back in the crowd a second boy with long, black hair tied into a ponytail was struggling with one of the guards. The solider had dropped his weapon and was using both hands to restrain the boy as best he could. "Hey!" he called out to the others. "Somebody get over here! We've got a fighter!"

"Let _go_, you bastard!" Shouted the boy, obviously baffled by the adult's use of English. He pulled his arms forward in frustration, but was pulled back once more. "Get off!"

"Kouji!" Kouichi exclaimed, eyes widening in fear as two more guards broke from their ranks and hurried over to help. Kouichi pushed away from the group and ran to his brother. "Kouji, stop!"

The slightly-younger twin stopped, his eyes widening. "Nii-san?"

"You want some too, punk?" Growled the English-speaking guard. He pulled back his rifle and hit Kouichi in the stomach, hard enough to knock him to the ground, winded. The one who had attacked stepped over to the boy, seizing his arm roughly.

"Don't touch him!" Kouji lashed out again, nearly pulling his still firmly restrained arms. "Don't you _dare_ hurt my brother!"

"Shut the hell up, you miserable bastard." Snapped the guard holding him, who suddenly shoved him forward. Kouji landed on top of his brother, whispering hurried apologies before rolling over to face their assailants.

One of the guards, puffing a foul-smelling cigarette hanging from the side of his mouth, lowered a gun to aim at the twins point-blank. "Damn Japs." He sneered, exhaling a puff of smoke along with his speech. "How 'bout I show you who's boss?"

"Morgan! Rogers! Lynch!"

The guards froze and instantly snapped to an alert salute. The cigarette-man dropped his light and pointed his gun into the air hastily. "Colonel Troy, sir!"

The twins turned slightly to look up at their savior. The man they called 'Colonel Troy' was tall and blonde with focused green eyes like some kind of raptor. Though he was dressed in the same basic fatigues as the other soldiers, two patches on either arm denoted his rank well above them.

He approached the group with his hands folded behind his back, examining each of the guards with scrutiny. "What seams to be the problem, Lieutenant?" He asked, addressing the cigarette-smoking gunman.

"A couple of troublemakers, sir." The Lieutenant sneered down at the boys.

"We didn't do anything!" Kouichi exclaimed, following the expression on the men's faces.

Colonel Troy looked down at the boys, both of whom were surprised when he spoke in Japanese. "Don't worry. I'll take care of it."

He snapped his eyes back up to his me. "Back to your posts, all of you."

"But sir.."

"I said 'back to your posts'." Troy reached down and pulled Kouji up by the arm, grasping Kouichi's in the opposite hand. "I'll take care of these two. Go process the other new arrivals."

Gripping both twins by opposite upper arms, he turned them around and marched them off. Kouji struggled a bit, but was placated by Kouichi's silently-begging eyes not to cause trouble. They were led into the camp…which looked suspiciously like a racetrack…and were taken into a small room that they could only assume used to be a manager's office. It was made almost completely of wood furnishings with a simple desk, two windows covered by vine Venetian blinds, a few pictures and decorations on the wall, including a pin-up calendar, opened to the month of November.

"Sit down." Troy said gruffly, motioning to the two folding chairs in front of the desk. The twins did as they were told as they Colonel sat behind the desk. Kouji scowled at the man, while Kouichi seemed oddly preoccupied by the calendar.

"Now then," Troy pulled out several sheets of paper, gazing at the twins levelly. "I notice you boys don't have numbers."

"Are we supposed to?" Kouji scowled. Kouichi nudged him, looking nervous.

Colonel Troy narrowed his gaze at them. "Where are your parents?"

Kouichi gulped, cutting off his brother. "Not…Not alive."

"I see." Troy nodded, shifting through his papers. "A couple of orphans, eh? I suppose we'll just have to get you registered now, then."

Kouji glanced at his brother in confusion, but Kouichi's face had taken the kind of shallow pallor one gets when something shocking and horrifying has been realized. The younger of the two fell silent, reaching over to grip his twin's hand comfortingly.

Colonel Troy produced two legal-looking forms and a pen, filling out the two pages simultaneously. "Names?"

"Minamoto." Kouji took charge rather firmly. "Kouji and Kouichi."

Troy pointed his pen at the younger twin. "Kouichi Minamoto?"

"Kouji." Stressed the long-haired twin. "I'm Kouji."

"I see." Troy scribbled down the names in the blanks expected of him. "Age?"

"Fourteen."

"Twins, I take it." Troy asked, and Kouji nodded. "Nissei?"

The twins blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Too young for Issei. Nissei." Troy filled in a bubble to the side of the form. "You'd think young people would know that by now…"

"Sir?" Kouichi spoke up suddenly. "Where are we, exactly?"

Colonel Troy looked up at him with a soft gaze. "California." He sighed, filling out the rest of the forms quietly. "This is Manzanar. You're here for your own protection."

"Protection?" Kouji snapped. "From what?"

Colonel Troy didn't answer. He pushed two pieces of paper dangling from two simple brown strings to the boys. Each card had a number: Kouji's was 748, Kouichi's, 749. "You are to wear these at all times and remain within the gates. Curfew is strict, and if you miss mealtime, too bad. Do you have any linens?"

"No." Kouji scowled at the number dangling from his neck.

"You'll have to share, then." Troy stood, moving to the door. "Come on. We'll get you situated."

The twins hurried after him. As soon as they were out the door and back among the crowds, Colonel Troy switched back to English and seamed to completely ignore the boys. He gave and received orders all too easily, pointing out directions to the English-speaking around them, and it was all the twins could do to keep up with him.

Kouji growled softly, clutching his brother's hand so that they wouldn't be separated. "What the hell is going on?" He hissed. "What is this place?"

"Kouji?" Kouichi spoke, his voice very soft. "Did you see the calendar in Troy-san's office?"

Kouji frowned. "Not really. Why?"

Kouichi bit his lip as though about to say something, but was cut off by Colonel Troy, once again in Japanese. "Here it is, you two."

'It' turned out to be a small house stable, like somewhere to keep racing ponies, that had been loosely modified with a few boards attached to each side. Inside were two small cots with lumpy-looking, barely-covered mattresses and one ragged blanket each, plus a pillow per bed.

Troy pointed to one of the cots. "You two'll have to share this one. We've already got another pair slotted as your roommates."

"Four people?" Kouji bristled. "In _here_?"

"Count your blessings." Troy sighed, moving to the door. "We've got families of eight living in places like this. Dinner's in two hours, so I suggest you boys get yourself set up and comfortable. You're going to have a long first night."

The makeshift door swung shut behind him. Kouichi sighed sadly and sat on their new 'bed'. Kouji dropped next to him angrily.

"Who…the hell…_is_ that guy?" Growled the younger twin. "And _what_ is up with this damn place?"

"…Kouji?"

"Yeah?" The younger twin's voice softened as he looked to his brother.

"The…The calendar…" Kouichi shifted nervously, wringing his hands as he stared at the ground. "It said it was November…"

"It's March."

"…_1942._"

Kouji stared at his twin blankly for a long time before the words found their way to his mouth. "It can't be."

"I think it can." Kouichi gulped again, wringing his hands more than before. "We…We were talking about this…in history. 1942 is the middle of the second World War. And…And I've heard.…that is, I've read about this place…Manzanar, California, in the U.S.…during the war it was…it was…"

"What?" Kouji asked, taking a deep breath. "What was it?"

Kouichi looked up at him with a frightened expression on his face. "It's a Japanese American Concentration Camp."

_**TBC…**_

_Issei_ - 'First Generation', the first generation of Japanese people to live in the United States, those who imigrated here from Japan.

_Nissei - _'Second Generation', the first generation of Japanese born on U.S. soil. The children of the Issei.


	2. Roommates

I have to admit, I have what one would call a 'morbid obsession' with some particular aspects of World War Two…Specifically, the creation and use of the atomic bomb, the fleeing of children from English cities during the air raids, kamikaze pilots, the de-sanctification of the Japanese Emperor, the utter hell that was the Holocaust and, of course, the forced relocation and concentration of Japanese-Americans. They really are fascinating subjects, and it's the only semi-modern historical period I'm interested in. (My other historical interests are Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, and the Crusades)

"Japanese"

"_Thinking"_

"English"

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kouji, Kouichi or anything else involved with Digimon Frontier. I'm just a bit of a history buff._

**Manzanar**

**Chapter 2: Roommates**

"Oh." came a voice from the door, startling the twins from their confused stupor. "Looks like we finally got some roomies."

The twins looked up, Kouji tensing and Kouichi moving into a slight bow automatically. The figure in the door was obviously older than them, a quick estimate putting him at 25, a remarkably young-looking Japanese man. His hair was a smooth, gleaming black, his brown eyes dark and friendly past his yellow-brown cheeks and pleasant face. He was dressed in rather ragged clothes, his front covered by a white apron, which he was now untying.

"Aw, man." Came a voice from behind him. "Guess we gotta go back to sharing, huh, Harry-nii?"

The man…Harry?…laughed softly and moved away from the 'door', taking off his apron as he did. His companion, who was about the twin's height and couldn't have been older than fifteen, stepped in behind him. His skin was a bit darker, tanned, with shaggy brown hair and familiarly bright auburn-brown eyes.

Kouji leapt to his feet in surprise. "Takuya!"

"Eh?" The brown haired boy blinked, pointing at himself, "You mean me?"

The older of the newcomers gave Kouji a strange look, then shrugged. "Sounds like you're a little disoriented, buddy."

Kouji sat down again, rubbing his temples in confusion. Kouichi hadn't moved fro his place, but folded his hands over his lap and bowed. "I'm sorry." He whispered softly. "But I'm afraid we don't know much English…"

"All righty then." The Takuya-look-alike grinned, switching to Japanese very easily. "We can do that easy enough, right, Harry-nii?"

Harry shook his head as though he had a headache, but smiled softly and sat down on his own cot. "Harry Ueno." He said simply, pointing to himself as a means of introduction. "Been here two months. I take it you guys are new?"

"…Yeah." Kouji glanced momentarily at his brother, then turned back with a sigh. "Kouji Minamoto. This is Kouichi."

"Twins, huh?" The younger of the two grinned broadly, offering his hand to Kouji. "Nice to meet you. Daniel Kanbara, at your service."

"Kanbara?" Kouji raised an eyebrow.

Daniel grinned, seizing Kouji's hand and shaking somewhat forcefully. "Yup, that's me. Why?"

"No reason." Kouji wrenched his hand away, scowling.

"Okay, okay…"

"Sour taste in your mouth?" Ueno volunteered, smirking slightly as he stretched out over his cot. "That's not surprising, but dinner aught to have it scoured out."

"Harry-nii!" Daniel…Kouji just couldn't think of him as Kanbara, no matter how common the last name was…poked the older boy insistently. "No fair! You're hogging the whole bed!"

Ueno smirked at him. "And what, pray tell, are you going to do about it?"

Daniel lunged, and within seconds the two were grappling on the makeshift bed, rocking back and forth as they did.

Kouichi cleared his throat lightly, leaning forward. "Are you two actually brothers?"

"Nah!" Daniel grinned, pinning the larger Ueno underneath him. "Not even related!"

Ueno sat up suddenly, pulling the younger boy into a head lock. "We just got stuck together. My family stayed in Nihon way back when…"

"And mine ran off." Daniel pulled at the thick arm futilely. "Kinda left me here though. So we wound up as bunkmates and…"

"The rest is history." Ueno tightened his grip with a mischievous smirk.

A loud siren shot out over the camp's rusty intercom and the two instantly broke apart. Kouji tensed. "What was that?"

"Dinner!" Ueno grinned broadly, and he and Daniel lead the way out the door.

**( - ) ( - ) ( - )**

Kouji wrinkled his nose at the bizarre smell that hit him from the open mess house doors. The unceremonious name was all-too-obviously accurate from what he could tell with just a glance. The building itself was hastily made of nothing but plywood and butcher paper, a few coiling strands of sticky yellow flypaper dangling over the rickety picnic tables that had been shoved together under a thin excuse for a roof that might or might not have protected from the rain.

The rancid smell turned out to be a combination of sweaty, crowded people, the genuine diaper-scent of younger children, and whatever it was they were serving for the rather massive crowd to eat. It was just as hard to identify once you got it, too. The only thing Kouji had ever seen like it was a disgusting attempt of Takuya's involving natto soybeans and an all-too-generous amount of Malt-O-Meal.

"What the hell _is_ this?" The long-haired twin groaned, poking the 'food' with his for.

"Corned beef." Harry loaded a blob into his spoon as an example. "Fresh from the can and warmed to eatablity by my own hand."

"Yours?" Kouichi blinked, turning his head to the side in a slightly owlish manner.

"Yup." Daniel smirked in a futile attempt to hide the disgusted grimace on his face. "Harry-nii landed himself a cook's job last month. Gets a decent wage, for this place."

"Six bucks a month." Ueno gulped down his spoonful. "To make this slop. Pitiful, huh?"

Kouji snorted. "No kidding."

Kouichi didn't say anything, just nibbled on the dry wheat roll that had come with his food.

Harry grinned at them. "Don't worry. This won't last too much longer. We're gettin' some real meat in soon…sugar, too, and salt and fresh bread. Couple more weeks of this slop and we'll be eating well enough, so just hang in there, _Futago_."

Kouji choked slightly on his food. No one had addressed them by that term…an adjective meaning 'twin'…since they'd gone to summer camp together when they were twelve. The counselors had immediately dubbed him 'Futago Otouto-san' and Kouichi had become 'Futago Nii-san'. It was annoying and bothersome, but no matte how much he worked or protested the names had persisted.

But before he could open his mouth to object this time around, he found himself face-down in the hog-slop.

"Kouji!" Kouichi exclaimed, snatching up one of the paper napkins as his brother came sputtering back up. The elder instantly set to the mothering work of cleaning the mess from his twin's face, but Kouji spun around to glare at whoever had pushed him.

Standing above him was a fat, sneering face with beady brown eyes and a greasy black pompadour. He seemed to be about nineteen or twenty with the maturity level of an eight year old. He was flanked on either side by a pair of thin, lanky boys with brown eyes and auburn pompadours who looked so similar that Kouji might have called them twins, had the thought not been so personally insulting.

"Whoops." Sneered the fat one with an ugly, pig-like expression. "Sorry, newbie. Gotta learn to keep your face clean."

"Iwamoto." Daniel spat with a glare.

Harry glared at the punk. "Back off. It's their first night."

"All the better." Iwamoto smirked. "Lil' newbies gotta learn their place pretty fast. The Goons don't like 'em sloppy around here."

Kouji growled softly and made a move to stand. Kouichi grabbed his brother's arm. "Kouji, please don't start a fight. We'll get in trouble."

"Auw, in'nit sweet?" Laughed Lanky Number 1, indicating the napkin Kouichi had been using.

"What are you, his mommy?" Sneer Lanky Number 2.

Kouichi recoiled somewhat hesitantly, an automatic reaction after years of 'Mama's Boy' bully in grade school. Kouji took the offensive, pushing ahead of his brother while remaining seated. "Shove off, bastard."

Iwamoto's pupils dilated. "What did you say to me, shrimp?"

"Oh, sorry." Kouji smirked. "I didn't know you were deaf as well as ugly.

Iwamoto snarled and lunged, grabbing Kouji's collar roughly. Harry jumped to his feet. "That's enough, Iwamoto!"

"Aw, shut it, Ueno!" Snapped the punk. "You damn Kibei think you're so smart, but a Nissei never lets himself be ordered a-"

"What's going on here?"

Iwamoto froze, still gripping the smaller boy's shirt. Ueno froze, eyes widening sharply at the figure behind the punk. Daniel and Kouichi froze, though Kanbara did draw in a sharp breath, preparing himself for what was to come next.

Colonel Troy approached them with slow, heavy, measured steps, his hands folded non-threateningly behind his back .Everyone around them was instantly silenced.

"…Is there a problem, boys?" He asked in soft Japanese.

A lieutenant craned his head up to look over Troy's shoulder and grinned toothily. "Told yeh they were troublemakers, sir."

Troy waved him into silence and turned back to glare at Iwamoto. The punk's hand slowly uncurled, releasing Kouji to let the boy sink limply back onto the bench with a wordlessly blank expression. Troy glanced at them wordlessly, drawing it out with a measured, paced silence.

"This will _not_ happen again." He said slowly, glaring down at Iwamoto sourly. "Understood?"

"Understood." Growled Iwamoto. "Sir."

"Good." Troy seized the older boy's arm and turned him around. "Carry on."

Iwamoto sneered, but motioned to his goons and shuffled away. Troy paused a moment to check Kouji's neck for wounds but, satisfied that the boy was unhurt, went on his way.

"Are you okay, Kouji?" Kouichi asked gently as his brother turned back around.

"Fine." Kouji adjusted his shirt back to its original place. "Who was that creep?"

Daniel and Harry sighed lightly. "Daisuke Iwamoto." Muttered Ueno. "Major bad news."

"He's a loose one, like use - no parents or nothing." Explained Daniel. "Thinks he runs the place, like he's the leader of everyone outside of the normal family classes."

"I'd watch out for him, if I were you." Ueno warned, leaning across the table. "You're on his 'List' now, and it'll take heaven itself for you to get off."

Kouji set his face in a defiant 'Bring it on' glare. Kouichi glanced at his brother in concern, then sighed and set about clearing the table.

**( - ) ( - ) ( - )**

Kouji had always prided himself on a strong constitution, on being able to hold out through even the most disgusting problems. After all, he'd faced down Raremon, one of the worst-smelling, slimiest piles of trash to ever call himself a Digimon, in his human form with nothing but a pipe that had broken off into his hand.

So the fact that the camp's communal bathrooms made him want to barf was saying something pretty damn bad.

The singular station of circle-in-the-round showers was one thing for someone used to public bathhouses, but the face that none of it had been cleaned anytime in the last year and that every last inch was crawling in grime was quite another. And the 'toilets', if you could call them that, were holes in one long plank, barely a foot apart from one another, set above a sort of troth that flushed itself every five minutes or so. The smell alone as you walked in was enough to make one seriously consider never bathing again and holding it in until they exploded.

"That was _the_ most disgusting thing I have _ever_ seen." Kouji growled as he pulled his jacket off and tossed his wet towel to the side.

Kouichi was sitting on their cot, unbuttoning his school shirt to change into the pajamas Colonel Troy had given them. The elder twin sighed softly. "I supposed you get used to it." He muttered, undoing the last button. "Ueno and Daniel seem to be fine."

"I can't believe they're still out there." Kouji wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Gross."

Kouichi nodded absently, his shirt hanging open as he stared down into a crack in the floor. Kouji glanced at him in concern, preparing to take off his own shirt. "Something wrong?"

Kouichi sighed. "What are we doing here, Kouji?" He asked finally, looking up. "We've been here a whole day now…but we're almost seventy-five years in the past and halfway around the world from home. We didn't just _come_ here."

"…You're right." Kouji sighed, pulling his shirt up over his head. "There's got a be a reason. I wonder if it's got anything to do with…"

"Kouji!"

The younger twin snapped his head around at his brother's startled cry. Kouichi was staring down at his own barred chest as he pulled the shirt away, gaping wide-eyed at a small purple mark that had appeared right below the end of his ribcage. It was about the size of a large bottle cap, though it was square rather than round, an unnaturally dark violet color in a very, _very_ familiar shape.

Kouji's eyes widened sharply. "No…way."

"You've got one, too." Kouichi whispered, pointing.

Kouji looked. Right there on his left side, exactly opposite of the one on his brother's, was a strikingly blue mark of the exactly similar dimensions. His fingers traced the familiar blocky pattern, finding it to be no different than his own skin, as though it was a tattoo.

"Lobomon's symbol…"

"Lowemon's, too." Kouichi finished, his eyes wide. "What do you think it means, Kouji?"

Kouji ran his fingers over the mark a moment longer, then reached down to grasp his pajama top. "You know what I think?" He said slowly, evenly as he pulled the flannel top over his arms and started buttoning up the front. "I think these are Ophanimon's way of telling us this is all their fault…"

"Twenty seconds and counting, boys!"

The stable door crashed open, making both twins jump with Ueno's grand announcement. He and Daniel, both already dressed in their pajamas, kicked off their boots and tossed their clothes into a far corner as they scrambled in.

Kouichi forced himself to calm down, pulling on his nightshirt without unbuttoning it to hide the mark. "Twenty seconds to what?"

"Lights out!" Daniel pulled up the covers of the second cot, scrambling in. "Fifteen seconds, now! You two better hurry!"

"What's the rush?" Kouji growled, stepping out of his pants and reaching for his pajama bottoms.

"They haven't missed a dot yet!" Harry reported, glancing at his watch. "Ten!"

Kouichi blinked as he adjusted the draw-string waist band on his own pants. "It can't be that bad."

"You'll see." Harry slipped into the cot he shared with Daniel, shifting slightly to leave some space for them both. "Five…Four…Three…Two…One…"

"LIGHTS OUT." Blared the intercom, and the electricity shut off.

After a short while of groping about in pitch blackness, Kouji managed to find his way to their own 'bed'. Kouichi was waiting for him, already settled back against the wall, holding the light blanket up as Kouji slid in.

"You okay?" The younger twin asked, pulling the covers around them both.

"Fine." Kouichi shuddered slightly, laying his head on the pillow they both shared.

Kouji reached out to put a hand on his brother's body, feeling light vibrations. "You're shivering."

"I'm just cold." Kouichi gulped slightly, smiling into the dark. "There's no…heat."

Kouji thought a moment, then let a small smile onto his lips. "Here. Give me your hands."

He reached out and grabbed them before they were offered. Cupping them between his own, he brought them up to his face and blew on them lightly.

Kouichi squirmed a bit at the delightful blast of warm air against his freezing digits. Kouji smiled a bit wider and did it again, rubbing this time with his hands to increase the friction.

"Thanks, Kouji." The elder twin whispered softly, freeing his hands to grasp the other's. "Now it's your turn."

They went back and forth a few times, warming each other slowly but surely until they settled down. Kouichi snuggled into the coarse pillow, moving his body closer to the delightful warmth his brother radiated, and for a moment he was content.

"Goodnight, Kouji." He whispered just before his eyes closed.

"Night, Nii-san." Answered Kouji, but his brother was already asleep.

_**TBC…**_

No, it's actually not very strange for the internees at these interment camps to have an 'American' first name and a Japanese last name, since many were the first generations. It's like a friend of mine who's parents moved here from China, their last name is very Chinese, but her mother can hardly say her first name. (Rosemary doesn't translate well into oriental accent. 'Losumari')

_Nihon - _Japan to the Japanese.

_Kibei - _Young people, teens or early twenties, who had at least 5 years of schooling in Japanese. Rather rebellious in the Interment camps.


	3. Rainy Days

Iwamoto's first name is 'Daisuke' for no particular reason other than I like the way it sounds. It's a common first name in Japan. So is Kouji, actually, and Izumi is popular for girls.

"Japanese"

"_Thinking"_

"English"

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kouji, Kouichi or anything else involved with Digimon Frontier. I'm just a bit of a history buff._

**Manzanar**

**Chapter 3: Rainy Days**

After the first week or so the sun started to sink just a little earlier and burn just a tad less painfully as the calendar slipped smoothly through the weeks of November. Within the barbed-wire fences, the twins found that they had been able to adapt somewhat to the mundane routine that shuffled the through the camp sleepily every day.

First, at about six a.m., they were woken by Ueno getting out of their 'pen' to report to the kitchens. An hour later a bell sounded to get up and get dressed thirty minutes before choking down the slop they called breakfast. Then they were 'free' to wander the camp until lunch at noon, when they would return for more hog slop and then tromp back to their quarters for shelter from the hottest, wettest or windiest hours of the day.

Somehow, Daniel Kanbara managed to remain as perky as ever, even as he rigged up an odd device involving wires and a plastic cup to catch an annoying leak during one particularly nasty rainstorm.

"I'll be worse in January, just you wait." He laughed, jumping back down to his cot. "Then it gets real cold and snows like nobody's business. The temperature dips really low and you gotta wear everything you own at once, or you'll freeze!"

"You don't say." Kouji muttered, a bit annoyed at the boy's sprightly attitude. He glanced down and prodded at the mismatched army fatigues Colonel Troy had given them when he'd discovered that the twins had no other clothes, wondering lightly how warm they'd be when the cold came.

Kouichi kept a gentle smile on his face, looking up from the propaganda pamphlets handed out from the commissary. "You certainly seem to know a lot about the camp, Daniel-kun. Have you been here long?"

"'Bout sixteen or seventeen months, give or take a few. I was with the first load." Daniel pulled a rather ragged-looking softball from his pocket and started tossing it up and down to himself. "It's not too bad, all things considered. Harry-nii and I get along pretty well, no folks, no family or nuthin'. If you can get a job, like Harry, it's even better."

"He sure grumbled about it, thought." Kouji observed. Ueno had returned from work the past two days complaining loudly of the 'lack of supplies' and about the military supervisors 'pushing them around'.

"He's still adapting." Daniel shrugged rather uselessly and went back to his game. "Harry-nii's lived alone since he was 18. He's used to giving the orders, not taking them."

Kouichi shot his brother a meaningful glance, grinning. Kouji scowled at him sullenly, crossing his arms and turning to glare out the 'stall' door. "…Rain's stopped."

"Not for long, though." Daniel warned, sitting up. "Dessert rains can go for days. It'll start up again in ten minutes, just you wait."

"I'm going out anyway." Kouichi set the papers aside and stood up, stretching. "If only for a bit."

Daniel made a face. "I ain't risking soggy sheets."

Kouji followed his brother with his eyes, still leaning against the wall. "You want me to go with you?"

"No thanks." Kouichi smiled at him warmly. "I need to get out and breathe a bit, that's all. You two just…keep talking."

Kouji narrowed his eyes to show that he understood. The twins had been doing their best to collect information as they adapted, looking for a way to get home. Right now, Daniel was their only lead…the name 'Kanbara' couldn't just be a coincidence…so all they to do on was what their roommate might know or do.

Kouichi nodded slightly in response to his brother's inner thoughts, then quietly exited the stall, letting the door swing shut behind him.

Kouji sighed a bit and turned his eyes skyward, trying to think of a good way to begin a rather awkward conversation. A random thought struck a cord and he decided to go with it.

"Oi, Kanbara. What's your family like?"

"I told you, the packed up and headed back to ol' Nippon." Daniel tossed the ball up again, higher than before. "I decided to go along…I'm a Nissei you know, so I'm an American citizen by law, I wanted to stay here. So they got my a delivery job, dropped me off at a public dorm in the working division, gave me some airmail postage and took off."

"Airmail, huh?" Kouji plopped back onto his own bed, still focused on the ceiling. "So, you keep contact with them?"

"I used to." Daniel's tone took a dark turn. "But mail to and from Japan has been shot since Pearl Harbor."

Kouji fell silent, and a heavy stupor hung over them for a long while. It had a familiar tone to it - personal shame for national mistakes. Kouji had seen the American movie, in subtitles of course, and the fact that it was one of the worst films he'd ever seen only made the whole thing more embarrassing.

"I got sent to the Stations as soon as they opened. My boss couldn't wait to get rid of me." Daniel continued blandly, as though mentioning the weather rather than his own dehumanization. "Had me cooped up in a train station for about four months before we loaded off. I've been here ever since."

A sudden spark went off in Kouji's mind. "How old are you, Daniel?"

"Seventeen." Huh. Two years older than Kouji's initial estimate. "Why?"

"No reason." Kouji lay back against his pillow contemplatively. This Kanbara was two years older than him and Kouichi…in _this_ time, at least, in real life he was at least sixty years their senior…but still, perhaps it meant something. The fact that Daniel was all but identical to Takuya had to be important too, he knew that…

A crash of thunder startled him out of his meditative state. Kouji sat up with the sudden realization that it was, once again, raining so hard that he could hardly see past the thick sheet outside the door.

"Told ya." Daniel smirked. "Cats and dogs."

Kouji's feet hit the floor. "Nii-san's still out there."

"I warned him." Daniel shrugged. "He's probably soaked through by now…Where are you going?"

Kouji scowled, pushing the door open into the rain. "Something's wrong."

"Don't be so paranoid." Daniel rolled his eyes. "He'll be back, it's just rain."

"Something's _wrong_." Kouji repeated. There was a rather sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, like he'd swallowed an ice cream pop stick and all, both icy and sharp at the same time.

Without another word, he stepped out into the fierce downpour and set off through the muddy grounds.

**( - ) ( - ) ( - )**

Kouichi hit the ground hard, a splash of mud flying up his already-soaked T-shirt, clinging to the damp skin underneath. He groaned and tried to push himself back up, but a thick hand grabbed him by the hair and shoved his face into the near-liquid earth.

Iwamoto laughed, snorting as the elder twin wrenched his head up, coughing and gasping for breath. "I warned you about keeping your face clean, didn't I, newbie?"

Kouichi looked up, managing little else than allowing the rain to was the mud from his face and prompting another round of laughter from Iwamoto's cronies.

"_Don't say anything." _He reminded himself firmly, gripping the chain-link fence to pull himself up. "_They'll just turn it against you…Just keep moving, just ignore them, don't cause trouble…"_

Iwamoto laughed, seizing the smaller boy by the back of his shirt and throwing him to the ground again. Kouichi curled up on instinct, sending another wave of mud flying in his wake, and came sputtering up as best he could. Iwamoto kicked another stream of earth into face, crouching down to seize the smaller teen by the hair.

"You think you're something special, huh?" He growled, pulling at the blue-black locks roughly. "You and that pencil-necked brother of yours…think you're so tough now?"

Kouichi winced, his hand moving to pull at Iwamoto's fingers uselessly. "Let…go…"

"What's so special 'bout you, huh?" Iwamoto tightened his grip, pulling. "Ueno's passed on his high-and-might, I'm-too-smart-for-you act? Where do you get off lookin' at me like that?"

He cut off them, because a coiled fist suddenly connected with his fat nose. Releasing Kouichi's hair as his muscles buckled in a light spasm, he stumbled into his flunkies, holding his now-bloody face with his pudgy, fat hands.

A low growl floated past the rain, cold and harsh. "Don't touch my brother."

"Kouji." Kouichi sighed, rubbing his pained head and smiling up at his twin in relief.

Kouji looked rather threatening, which was no surprise to anyone who knew his great distaste of being wet. Marching towards Iwamoto with his arms straight down at his sides, hands clenched into fists, he looked startlingly similliar to a stray cat with a nasty temper, just pulled out of a bucket of water. Even his hair, slopped messily over his shoulder and running a steady stream down his already soaked front, seemed to dangle dangerous like some kind of noose.

He paused a moment to help Kouichi back on his feet, his scowling eyes never leaving Iwamoto. "Did they hurt you?"

"No." Kouichi shook his head. "I'm okay, Kouji. Really."

"Good." Kouji spun away from the trio of punks, leading his brother away by the arm. "Come on, you're gonna get sick out here…"

"Hold it, Minamoto!"

Pointedly ignoring Iwamoto's oinkish squeals, Kouji increased his grip on Kouichi's arm a bit protectively. Kouichi gave his brother a worried look, turning back to glance at their aggressor cautiously.

Even through the rain, Iwamoto was livid, his face a blotted, squat red like an overripe tomato, his beady brown eyes pushing out of the blob like pungent seeds. He charged forward, sloshing through the thick brown mud in his boat-like shoes, a picture of absolute fury as his pudgy fists clenched in his tightly-coiled arms.

Kouichi realized what was happening seconds before it actually did, but he barely had time to open his mouth when Iwamoto's strong over handed sucker punch connected with back of Kouji's head.

A sickening crack echoed over the rain, followed by a light splash as Kouji hit the soggy earth face-first.

"Kouji!" Kouichi gasped, dropping to his knees and pulling his brother up by the shoulder. Kouji sputtered as he came up, spitting out a liberal amount of mud.

Iwamoto loomed above them, an ugly smirk carved onto his fat face. "Not so tough now, are you?" He sneered, and kicked Kouji in the stomach.

"Stop it!" Kouichi cried, lunging to catch the black-boated foot as it pulled back again. "Stop it! Just stop it!"

"Get lost!" Iwamoto growled, kicking the younger boy's hands away. He reached down and hoisted Kouichi up by the collar, tossing him across the slick earth. "Stay out of my way!"

Kouichi stumbled, barely managing to regain his balance before two pairs of thin, bony hands seized his arms. Lankies numbers 1 and 2 were standing on either side of him, holding him firmly.

"You better stay out of this, if you know what's good for you." Lanky Number 1 laughed.

"Daisuke's pissed." Strained his brother in a low, haunting hiss.

Iwamoto smirked again and turned back to the younger twining, aiming for a solar plexus kick this time. Inches before connecting, Kouji twisted away and grabbed the older boy by the ankle, pulling his feet out from under him. Iwamoto fell backwards with a strangled cry.

Kouji pushed off the ground and landed on both feet, his muscles uncoiling with snake-like precision. His blue eyes focused on the lanky pair holding his brother with a sharp, cold, neigh-demonic glare.

"Get your hands off him." He growled.

Kouichi twisted sharply in the bullies' grasp, his eyes widening in alarm. "Kouji, behind you!"

A crash of thunder echoed through the camp like a second warning, just before a mud-soaked Iwamoto descended on the long-haired twin. Huge, ape-like arms wrapped around Kouji's throat, pulling back into a tight choke-hold. "You think you can handle me?" Iwamoto crowed, leaning backward to pull Kouji off his feet and dangle the smaller boy inches from the ground. "A puny little runt like you, handle me? Hah!"

Kouji, gripping Iwamoto's fat arm with both hands, pulled his leg up and slammed his foot back into Iwamoto's stomach. The punk leaned forward in pain, but tightened his grip, so Kouji did it twice more before he was able to squirm free.

As soon as his feet hit the slick ground, Kouji barely wasted a second before he spun around and sucker punched his assailant in the gut.

It took Iwamoto several long seconds to suck the air back into his lungs, but once it was in it burst out again in an animalistic roar. He charged and Kouji braced for impact, his arms up to act as a buffer for Iwamoto's rhino-like rage, but couldn't protect against the chain link fence he suddenly found himself backed against.

All of a sudden, a harsh sphere of white-hot light shot to life and engulfed the five quarreling young men within its watchful gaze. "Freeze!" rang a deep, male voice, accompanied by the sound of half a dozen rifles clicking into loaded positions.

Iwamoto went rigid on the spot, still holding Kouji against the fence rather limply. Said younger twin soon found himself released suddenly as two fo the military guards stormed through the rain and seized each of the large punk's arms.

"Iwamoto." Sneered the nearest of the two. "Causing troubling again, are you?"

"I'm not causing anything!" Iwamoto snapped, and the butt of a rifle found its place firmly in his gut.

Kouji felt a wave of outrage. True, he had until seconds before been trying his very hardest to beat the older boy into a squishy, bloody pulp, but that had been a matter of family protection and they'd both been unarmed. This was…police brutality! _And_ they were using a weapon against an unarmed man! The though of it sent a ripple of fury up Kouji's spine.

"Move it, you!" Another guard snapped at the Lankies, who released Kouichi and sulked away grumpily. The older twin scrambled over to his brother and began to check his possible wounds with concerned, motherly coos.

One of the guards, obviously very annoyed at being called out to duty in the pouring rain, scowled at the twins accusingly. "And what are you two doing out here?"

Kouji opened his mouth to give a standard smart-ass remark, but Kouichi suddenly cut him off. "It was my fault, sir."

"Nii-san!"

"I got caught out in the rain." Kouichi continued, pointedly ignoring his brother's protests. "Iwamoto found me as I was going back to our room and, well…I'm sorry, sir."

The guard scowled some more, glaring at each of the boys in turn. "Damn Japs. 'Least have the decency to learn English in this day an' age." He paused a moment before storming off, just long enough to snap, "Back to your bunks, both of you. Now!"

The boys, understanding that they'd been granted a reprieve, scrambled together back through the rain.

**( - ) ( - ) ( - )**

"Woah. What the hell happened to you two?"

Kouji scowled at Ueno and Daniel as the twins stepped into their 'stall', wringing the mud and rainwater out of his long hair. "Iwamoto."

"Ouch." Daniel winced, standing to examine the shiner crawling over Kouji's left eye. "He really did a number on ya, didn't he?"

"We warned you." Ueno wagged his finger in a light tut-tut manner. "Iwamoto's like stepping in gum, once it gets on you, it's impossible to get off."

Kouji mumbled something on the accuracy of the analogy, pulling the sopping wet shirt off over his head.

Kouichi had a slightly bothered expression as he dried his hair with a lesser-used towel. "The guards were awfully rough on them, though…"

"Whattya mean?" Daniel asked in an almost coy manner.

"They nearly shot us." Kouji muttered sourly. "And I'm willing to bet they beat Iwamoto up more than I could have, too."

Henry and Daniel glanced at each other with a gloomy expression and sighed nearly in unison. "Yeah." Daniel shook his head. It's been like that for a while now."

Kouichi blinked. "Like what?"

"The guards getting all high and might on us." Ueno scowled. "You should see it in the kitchens, they've got three officers in there watching our every move. They insist on rationing every little thing, and they keep upping the restrictions. Doesn't matter if everybody gets to eat or not, as long as they save a little more meat to swipe later on."

He frowned heavily, leaning against the wall and staring up at the leaky ceiling. "They think they're superior, like we're animals or something." His eyes melded into a harsh glare. "It's a load of bull, every last bit of it. A fat load of _bull_."

Daniel winced a bit at the stress of the last word. Kouji and Kouichi glanced at each other, making simultaneous mental notes, and went back to changing out of their soaking clothes.

_**TBC…**_


	4. In Sickness and In Health

"Japanese"

"_Thinking"_

"English"

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kouji, Kouichi or anything else involved with Digimon Frontier. I'm just a bit of a history buff._

**Manzanar**

**Chapter 4: In Sickness and In Health**

Kouji coughed heavily into his beans and franks 'lunch', prompting his brother to glance his way worriedly. "Are you all right, Kouji?"

"I'm fine." Muttered the long-haired boy, wiping his lip and leaning over his tray again. He blinked down at the plastic plate blurrily, watching the mess run down onto the Styrofoam tray. He shivered lightly, but immediately chalked it up to a minor winter chill and went back to his food.

Kouichi watched his brother's actions with potent concern. The rain had slowed to a stop a few days before, only to be replaced by a biting cold that blew through every nook and cranny of the camp to chill every one of its residents to the bone. Daniel hadn't been kidding about the ferocity of the winter frost. Every day found the twins layered in more and more clothes, and every night they huddled closer and closer together, desperate to share a decent amount of body head. To make matters worse, the already meager quality of their meals was dwindling steadily thanks to yet more rationing in the kitchens. It had been beans and franks three meals a day for the past week, thought Ueno informed them glumly that the menu would change tomorrow.

"Get ready for a week of fried spam and wheat bread." He grumbled at the dinner table, prodding the plastic cup with his fork until it tipped over and spilled orange juice all over his tray.

That night, once they'd suffered through an unheated, icy shower booby trapped with unseen ice slicks, the twins sat together on one of the hard wooden benches, covered only by thin white boxer shorts as they waited to drip dry. The prospect of sleeping in even slightly damp clothes was roughly sickening, in more ways than one.

Kouichi shivered lightly, glancing over at his brother. Kouji was facing slightly away from him so that the clearest feature on his pale form was the dark blue Mark on his side. The elder twin tried to grin wirily, pulling his feet up to rest on the bench and get away from the cold floor. "D-D-Dr-Dry yet?"

"N-Not even a b-bit." Kouji chattered, rubbing his bare arms slightly. Kouichi's dark purple mark wasn't nearly as clear as his brother's especially not in this shaded, badly-lit place. In fact, at a glance it looked more like a bruise, but perhaps that was a good thing. No strange questions if someone caught him without his shirt.

Kouji shook himself out of his thoughtful stupor and blew on his hands. "S-So…an-any luck t-today?"

"N-Nothing." Kouichi rubbed his upper arms, trying to keep warm. "I'm st-starting to w-wonder if the Digimon are a-actually behind this at all."

"I-It's gotta be them." Kouji shifted on the bench, stretching his aching legs. "Wh-Who else can it be?"

"B-But what for?" Whimpered the older brother lightly, moving a bit closer to the other's body head. "And w-why us?"

Kouji coughed, shrugging his bare shoulders. "I-I don't know. That's what we-we've got to figure out." He coughed again and reached for his shirt. "Come on. I th-think we're dry enough n-now."

Kouichi nodded in agreement, but continued to watch his brother in concern. "Kouji?" He whispered softly as they pulled their clothes on. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Kouji coughed brutally a few more times and failed to hide a one of them. "Why?"

"Your throat sounds awful." Kouichi crossed the small space as he between them as he pulled his shirt on, placing a hand against his brother's forehead. "And you feel…sort've warm. Are you sick?"

"Of course not." Kouji pulled away from his brother's caring hand and yanked his shirt down over his head. "I can't get sick now, we've got work to do."

Kouichi's frown deepened, but he knew better than to object. "All right, Kouji, if you're really…sure…"

"Of course I'm sure." Kouji gave his brother a supportive sort of grin as he slipped his feet into his shoes, checking his watch a bit restlessly. "Come on, it's nearly lights out. We've got to get back."

Kouichi nodded absently and went to fetch his own shoes, watching his brother's retreating back with a worried air.

**( - ) ( - ) ( - )**

It couldn't have been later than one-thirty in the morning when Kouichi found himself suddenly conscious. He shifted in bed, careful not to disturb his sleeping brother, and wondered idly what had woken him. He rolled away from the breathing heater next to him and curled up beside the wall, finding it all a bit too hot for his liking…

Wait a second. Hot?

The boy's eyes shot open and he sat straight up, snapped his head around the familiar body beside him. Even in the gloomy darkness he could see that Kouji was suffering, lying flat out on his back, his limbs spread out around him, sweating profusely and gasping for breath. His hair had fallen undone and lay spread against the sopping wet half of the pillow, beads of icy perspiration running down a flushed face.

"Kouji!" Kouichi gasped to the shadows, reaching for his brother. He barely had to touch the limp form's shoulders to tell that his entire body was scalding hot to the touch. "Kouji, please say something! Answer me, Kouji, please!"

A few muffled groaned echoed from across the room, followed by a beam of light as a small flashlight clicked on, illuminating the face of one very tired-looking Harry Ueno. "What's all the ruckus?" He asked with a yawn as Daniel sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Some of us have to get up early, you know."

Normally, Kouji would be patient with them, but this was a bit of an emergency. "Kouji's sick!"

"Huh?" Daniel yawned, but managed to keep it small. "Sick? Whattya mean?"

"He's burning up!" Kouichi gasped, moving quickly to cover his brother with all the blanket he could. "His temperature…it's so high…and his breathing's so rough…"

"Woah." Ueno gave a low whistle as his light fell over Kouji's face. "He's got something _bad_. You better get him into the camp hospital first thing in the morning."

Small flags popped up in Kouichi's mind. "Hospital?"

"Yeah, it's on the north side of camp." Ueno shrugged and motioned vaguely north. "A little under-staffed, but they've got good medicine and they'll take anybody who needs the help in for a while 'til they get fixed up and…hey, where do you think you're off to?"

Kouichi had already seized his clothes and was in the process of scrambling into his shoes by the time Ueno didn't quite finish his sentence. "Kouji needs medicine. I've got to get him into that hospital!"

"Not now!" Daniel sat straight up, suddenly awake. "It's way after curfew, if you go out now you'll get in huge trouble!"

"Just wait until morning!" Ueno urged. "It won't be that long, you can come out with me for the morning shift and…"

"If I don't go now he'll just get worse." Kouichi mumbled. "He might not make it…Kouji needs that medicine _now_!"

Ueno grabbed him roughly by the shoulders, a serious expression set firmly on his face. "Listen," he whispered, keeping a decent median between harsh and kindly but leaning towards the former. "You do _not_ want to risk being caught outside after dark. Trust me, I've been there twice and have the scars to prove it. Last time got me in solitary confinement for three days. You think the morning patrol is ill-tempered? The Night Guard is _worse_. You get caught out there and you're liable to be shot!"

"Then I won't get caught." Kouichi took the older boy's arms by the wrists and pulled them from his shoulders. "But I'm getting my brother into the hospital _tonight_."

And without listening to another word, he pushed open the stall door and disappeared into the inky blackness of night.

…

Kouichi was used to the dark. After all, it was infused to his spirit, there was a never-fading shadow within his very being, like some remnant of Lowemon's presence carefully guiding his moves to steer him away from danger.

However, he still found a sort of comfort in the softly-glowing orange lamps that illuminated certain stretches of the camp grounds, even if they were few and far between. It was better than stumbling through the mud and mess completely blind. Much better, actually, especially since making any sort of wrong move was liable to get him shot or electrocuted.

Kouichi place a hand on the wooden wall of the nearest building, carefully following it from one little shack to the next in a diagonal sort of line towards what he knew to be the nearest guardhouse. It was just a tiny point of light in the distant shadows, but if he focused on that he had a point to move to…

In blinding suddenness, the beam of a flashlight fell across him, momentarily blinding him. Kouichi reeled back in surprise as a voice shot out. "Freeze!"

Automatically, Kouichi's hands rose to show that he was unarmed. There were three guards facing him, two guns and one flashlight pointed in his direction, along with the glaring eyes of the soldiers themselves.

"What do you think you're doing at this time of night?" Sneered the one in the center, the one with the flashlight.

"Causing trouble, most likely." Growled one of his companions, lifting the gun in his arms and clicking the hammer into place.

"W-Wait!" Kouichi exclaimed, his mind racing to find all the English words that might help him now. "Brother…my brother…ill…he needs…doctor…"

The one guard who hadn't spoken yet waved his hand to calm the others, taking a step forward and switching to a rough Japanese. "What was that?"

"My brother's really sick!" Kouichi burst out. "He needs a doctor right away…I need to get him into the hospital here, please!"

The man seemed to be deep in thought for several long seconds. "If your brother is sick, shouldn't your father be the one to place him in the hospital?"

"We don't have a father." Kouichi's voice took a desperate tone. "No mother, either. It's just the two of us, sir, please."

"I see." The man leaned back and spoke to the other two in rapid English. Kouichi couldn't follow most of it, but he caught the words 'orphan' and 'hospital', so he could only assume they were repeating his story.

The soldier who spoke Japanese came around beside him and patted his shoulder. "Now then," he said pleasantly, starting to lead the boy down the line of buildings. "Let's see about getting your brother set up, shall we?"

"Th-Thank you so much." Kouichi let out a sigh of relief. He'd almost been expecting a not-so-gentle prod with the rifles to a rather sensitive part of his body, the way Iwamoto had been treated. After everything that happened, such kindness was like a dream.

"Don't mention it." The soldier grinned, opening a door for the boy and gently leading him into the shadowed room beyond. "Of course, don't think that it's going to be free."

"I'll do anything!" Kouichi nodded eagerly. "I'll work for the camp, in the kitchens or outside, no pay or anything…"

"Well, that won't be necessary." The soldier laughed softly as he took his hands of Kouichi's shoulder. "You see, we can take what we need right now. All you have to do is keep your mouth shut."

For a moment, Kouichi's mind wandered to try and figure out what it meant. However, he didn't have long to think before a cloth descended over his face and tightened sharply over his mouth.

Kouichi's mild instincts shot to life, his hand snapping up to claw at the gag. Hands, much larger than his own, reached around and seized his arms, roughly yanking them behind his body. Coils of rope snaked around his wrists and bound them tight, just before the hands shoved him from behind and toppled him to the hard, cold floor.

A spark of flame flared to life in the darkness, illuminating the Japanese-speaking soldier's face as he lit a cigarette. He took a long drag, blowing a cloud of pungent smoke out through his nose.

"Two and a half bloody years." He sneered harshly. "That's how long we're stuck in this rat hole with you miserable Japs. No vacations, no days off, we don't even get shore leave perks with a crappy mission like this!"

"Yeah." Sneered one of his companions, grapping Kouichi by his shit and hauling the boy into a sitting position. "Two godforsaken years of our lives down the drain watching you miserable bastards! You call that fair? 'Cause I don't!"

"It's about time we got out kicks, yeah?" Laughed the third one gruffly.

"Indeed." The group's 'leader' of sorts leaned down and grabbed Kouichi by the chin, forcing his face up to look at him. "And he's not a bad looking sample, either. Kinda cute."

Kouichi mumbled against the gag and pulled at his bonds uselessly, kicking at his assailants without doing much good. The cigarette-smoking soldier laughed at him, seizing his knees and pushing them down to the ground, pinning him painfully. "Just relax, kiddo." He laughed, sitting on one of his legs and letting his now-freed hand trail up the boy's body. "Consider this your down payment. And who knows? You might just enjoy it."

Kouichi struggled fiercely, thrashing his shoulder and bound arms as best he could. His screams for help died against the rough cloth of the gag, and his fighting was beaten down by the other two soldiers, who seized his shoulders and pulled him to the ground. His mind automatically blocked out the laughter, the taunts and the noises around him, focusing on one thought:

"_Kouji needs a doctor. I have to…have to get out of here…Kouji!"_

_**TBC…**_

Okay, don't kill me. I swear, it won't stay a cliffy for long, I promise. Oh, and I've never found anything about…those kinds of things…happening at any of the interment camps. But to be honest, people are people and things do happen when they're given utter control of another human. They've done some…horrible, terrible…studies on that kind of stuff.


	5. Under Arrest

I know it's normally not typical to have Kouji get sick, but come on people - he's not invulnerable. He does get sick sometimes, despite his best efforts to deny the fact, and he has his times of weakness. This is one of those times.

"Japanese"

"_Thinking"_

"English"

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kouji, Kouichi or anything else involved with Digimon Frontier. I'm just a bit of a history buff._

**Manzanar**

**Chapter 5: Under Arrest**

Kouichi struggled violently, but his efforts were useless as he couldn't break free from either his captors' strong arms or the ropes binding his wrists. The cigarette-smoking man who was gradually looming over him laughed at his efforts. "This one's not just a pretty face! So feisty!"

His companions chuckled heavily, increasing their grip on the boy's shoulders. One of them reached out with his free hand to tear the thin sleeping-shirt down the front, exposing a pale chest to the groping hands of his aggressor.

The smoker chuckled again, reaching slowly for the brim of the boy's shorts. Kouichi struggled futilely and shouted for help against the gag. "Now." Laughed the leader of the attack. "Let's have some fun, ne?"

But his fingers had barely curled around the boy's waistband when the door suddenly opened, ushering in a beam of white-orange light and a sharp command.

"FREEZE!"

The three soldiers readily obeyed, though it was more from fear and shock than obedience training, mostly because one Colonel Troy was standing firmly in the doorway with a handgun ready to blow them all away. There was a rather harsh sort of fire in his eyes, and two lower guards flanked his sides.

"On your feet. All of you, now!"

The soldiers leapt up, dragging a still-bound and gagged Kouichi to his feet them. They were all pale-faced in shock at being caught in their act of built-up lust. Colonel Troy, on the other hand, was firm in his convictions as he motioned to the accompanying sentries.

"Get these three locked up." He snarled almost harshly. "And have the paperwork of court-martial on my desk tomorrow morning."

The soldiers to either side of saluted and moved to arrest the three offenders. The smoker, obviously panicked, suddenly shoved Kouichi forward and bolted. As Troy moved to catch the boy before he could hit the ground, the offender ran past him and into the darkness of the night.

However, there were several guards gathering outside, and they acted quick. The perpetrator hadn't gone more than three steps before he was pounced on. His cigarette fell to the ground and was quickly snuffed out while two separate soldiers seized his arms an forced them behind his back. He struggle fiercely and cursed up a storm, spewing every foul blasphemy he could think of in a furious rage.

"What the hell do you goddamn bastards care?" He shrieked into the dark as he was lead away. "What the hell do you care? They're Japs! Nothing but goddamn motherf…"

"That's enough!" Snapped Colonel Troy, covering Kouichi's ears in a fatherly sort of manner. "Get him out of here, now!"

The soldiers complied and dragged the would-be rapist from the site, hissing and spitting savagely. Once he was well out of the way, Colonel Troy began to undo the ropes around Kouichi's arms.

"Are you all right?" He asked softly, removing the gag.

"Y-Yes." Kouichi gulped a breath of air thankfully, testing his freed wrists. "I'm fine…thank you, sir."

"Good." The strong hands descended on his shoulders a bit roughly. "Now how about telling me what you think you're doing out here at this time of night?"

Kouichi bit his tongue lightly, looking up at the Colonel with pleading eyes. "Sir, please," he whimpered lightly. "It's Kouji…my brother. He's sick, sir, he needs a doctor as soon as possible, please!"

Troy's eyes softened in a sort of understanding. He took a deep, steadying breath and patted Kouichi's shoulder in a comforting manner.

"Is that so?" He sighed, shaking his head. "Well, com on. Let's get him set up."

**( - ) ( - ) ( - )**

After four, nearly five weeks of spending his nights curled beside his brother, Kouichi found it almost uncomfortable to lie in the cot alone. This just added to his already present insomnia, staring off into the darkness and thinking of Kouji. He'd been right there when Colonel Troy and the other guards carefully carried his ailing brother to the infirmary and placed him into a clean cot. A doctor had been called and, though the hospital itself was a bit under-stocked, they had assured him repeatedly that Kouji would be fine.

Still, it did nothing to calm his nerves. So he lay awake, counting off the minutes as the night slipped quietly by. He felt a growing sort of eager hope rising in his chest as Ueno quietly slipped out of his own bed and crept out the door.

But that balloon of optimism was punctured as Ueno back up through the door once again.

"Hey, what's the big…" Ueno demanded, but was cut off as the door slammed shut in his face.

For the second time since the sun had set, Daniel shot blurrily out of sleep to blink at his roommates. "Oi." He yawned sleepily. "What's goin' on?"

Kouichi sat up as well, curious. Harry turned to face them with a highly disturbed expression on his face. "We're in total lockdown." He whispered, sounding mildly shocked. "No one's allowed to leave their bunks, for any reason."

"Lockdown?" Daniel jumped up and gazed out the gaps at the top of the door. "What for?"

"I dunno." Ueno bit his lip. "But…they said something about an officer being killed."

There was nothing more for them to say for a rather long time.

The lockdown lasted long past breakfast, until the sun had risen and far after. About eight o'clock, Kouichi cracked the door open and tried to barter a visit to his brother, but the only answer was a rough shove that sent him sprawling to the floor.

Daniel had a small glass with him and used it to listen through the walls to their neighbor's conversations. From the Yamadas and Iwatas, the two four-person families living to their left, he discovered that an officer had been found beaten to death near the kitchens very early that morning.

"Mrs. Yamada says his neck was snapped. Probably dead when he hit the ground."

"Lemme guess." Ueno frowned, looking up from the stack of papers he'd been occupying himself with. "They think one of the interns did it. One of us."

"Well, yeah. There aren't many others it could be, are there?" Daniel glanced at Kouichi. "Did you see anything weird out there last night? Anybody besides you?"

Kouichi shook his head. "Just the guards."

Daniel sat on their cot and looked down at Ueno. "What about you, Harry-nii? Did you see anything?"

"I didn't see nothin'." Muttered the older boy, not looking up.

Kouichi was surprised. "You went out last night, Ueno?"

Harry shifted on the stone floor awkwardly and glanced away, but Kouichi recognized the pale blush on his cheeks, since it was identical to the one Kouji wore when he'd done something 'uncharacteristically' nice for someone.

Daniel obviously got it, too, and grinned at Kouichi. "You were gone an awful long time, buddy. We got worried about you."

Kouichi turned to Ueno with an admirable gave in his eye. "You came after me?"

"I didn't do nothin'." Ueno muttered, not looking up. "I threw a rock at the officer's quarters, so they'd know somebody was out and about. Then I ran. That's it."

Kouichi smiled. That explained what a higher official like Colonel Troy had been doing out at such a time of night, and why the missing night guards had come under suspicion. "Thanks."

Ueno colored again and looked pointedly away. "I didn't do nothin'." He repeated, then paused a moment before he looked up again. "Look, don't tell anybody, okay? If I get caught again, I'll loose it. I'm not going into solitary again."

"My lips are sealed." Daniel pulled an imaginary zipper across his lips and Kouichi, recognizing the English phrase, nodded in agreement.

Ueno grinned wirily, straightening his papers. "Thanks." He sighed, and went back to his work.

Daniel yawned widely and stretched, falling back onto his cot and popping his jaw. "Still…" He blew his bangs up. "I wonder who did do that grunt it. From the sound of things, he must have been a pretty tough one…"

"They'll pin it on somebody, just you wait." Ueno muttered sourly. "This lockdown is majorly overboard. They'll starve us until somebody spills, whether they did it or not."

Kouichi sighed and leaned back against the wall, turning his eyes up to the ceiling. Daniel glanced at him. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." Kouichi closed his eyes calmly. "I'm just…thinking about Kouji."

"He'll be okay." Daniel sat up a bit and grinned at the dark-haired twin, trying to be reassuring. "The docs are pretty good, for a place like this. And I'm sure the guards wouldn't go after a sick kid. It's not like they're gonna be breaking down the doors or anything."

Then all three boys jumped a foot, because the door to their 'pen' suddenly crashed inwards with a massive _BANG!_ Daniel fell off the bed and nearly landed on Ueno, who scattered his papers all over the floor as he leapt to his feet, staring wide-eyed at no less than eight soldiers crowded at the doorway.

A boorish lieutenant Colonel led the pack, his face set in a definite sneer. "Harry Ueno." He growled, voice low and gravely. "You are under arrest."

"For what?" Ueno demanded, his body rigid. Daniel reacted as well, scrambling to his feet even as he provided a brief translation for Kouichi.

"For the assault and murder of a military officer."

Ueno hissed, taking a step back. Kouichi rose slowly to his feet, whispering. "No…he didn't.…"

"You have no proof!" Daniel snapped.

"I have proof enough!" The Lt. Colonel stepped all the way into the room, his men aiming rifles at the three boys premeditatedly. Their leader paused to lean down, keeping himself very dignified, and pick up one of the papers Ueno had dropped. He scanned his eyes over the Hiragana script and read aloud. "The officers of this establishment care only for their own welfare and nothing for ours. We are not cattle, nor any other beast of burden. We are humans, and we are Americans. We can no longer tolerate this kind of unjust treatment."

He turned to Ueno, holding the page accusingly. "You have been spreading this rebellion-spawning newsletters throughout the Nisei of the camp. Did you really think we wouldn't get ahold of one?"

"The kitchen-patrol officers steal from the rations _they_ make us keep!" Ueno snapped. "Half the camp is starving because a couple of fat-ass captains are swiping all the meat!"

"Ueno, this isn't the time…" Kouichi mumbled in a near-whisper, eyeing the gun barrels anxiously.

Daniel stepped forward, glaring. "That doesn't prove anything!"

"No, it doesn't." The Lt. Colonel allowed quietly. "However, Mr. Ueno was seen by three separate witnesses to be crouching around the officer's quarters last night, long after curfew, placing him in just the right place to draw the officer away for the crime."

"But he wasn't-" Daniel started, but cut off at Ueno's stern glare.

"…Well?" Prompted the military leader skeptically. "Can you account for you activities last night, Mr. Ueno?"

Harry remained silent. Kouichi bit his lip in both nervousness and frustration. Was Ueno _that_ afraid of solitary confinement that he'd rather be arrested than risk it? Or was there…something else?

The Lt. Colonel waited patiently for a while, then sniffed. "The charges stand, then." He grunted, motioning to his men. The two soldiers came forward to put an unresisting Ueno in handcuffs, his arms pulled behind his back. The squad leader spent a moment examining the cook's defiant expression, the motioned with his hand. "Take him away."

The guards obliged, marching Ueno to the door. Daniel took several steps forward, reaching out as he was held back by the Lt. Colonel. "Harry-nii…"

Ueno glanced back at his roommate and smiled. "Take care of yourself, kid." He whispered, and allowed himself to be led away.

The Lt. Colonel turned as well, marching out the door and ignoring Daniel as the younger boy dropped to his knees on the cold dirt floor. "The lockdown will continue for two more hours while we get him shipped to the nearest federal penitentiary." He ordered an unseen figure as he left. "No one is to leave their designated rooms until that time."

The door slammed shut.

Kouichi quietly crossed the room and knelt next to Daniel. After a few seconds, he realized that the Kanbara was crying, gripping some of Ueno's half-finished newsletters as tears rolled down his tanned cheeks.

"Daniel-kun…"

"They won't get away with this." Sobbed the brown-haired boy, his clutched fists crumpling the page in his hands. "Those bastards aren't going to get away with this…I swear, they're gonna pay…"

_**TBC…**_


	6. More Problems

**Historical Fact: **_December 12, 1942 - _A guard is found murdered in Manzanar Japanese Interment Camp, California. Harry Ueno, a popular camp cook, is arrested in connection with the killing because he was unable to verify his location that night.

"Japanese"

"_Thinking"_

"English"

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kouji, Kouichi or anything else involved with Digimon Frontier. I'm just a bit of a history buff._

**Manzanar**

**Chapter 6: More Problems**

"They did _what_?"

Kouichi nodded, quietly shushing his brother as some of the doctors glared at their noisy patient. Kouji's face held an expression of angry disbelief, his hands gripping the blankets of the hospital bed tensely. His fever had long since broken, but the doctors were keeping him for another day or so to make sure he really was better.

"Lie down, Kouji." The elder twin whispered softly, putting his hand on his brother's shoulder. "You're still sick."

"I'm _fine_." Kouji muttered, glaring right back at the doctors who might have said otherwise. He leaned forward. "Did anything else happen? Anything at all?"

"…Daniel's really mad."

"Well, duh."

"I'm worried, Kouji." Kouichi looked up at him, wringing his hands anxiously. "What if he does something…drastic? Something really bad?"

Kouji met his brother's gaze a moment, reaching over to gently squeeze his hand in a comforting manner. "Don't worry." He whispered gently. "Everything will be okay."

Kouichi was tired, Kouji could see that. His brother was tired and cold and hungry. The food these past two days had been worse than ever before, stale bread and a bit of water, which was mostly frozen now thanks to the fresh layer of snow from the night before. What's more, Daniel had barely been back to the barracks at all these past couple of days, and when he was there he would hardly speak to Kouichi. Kouji interred into the hospital until further notice, Kouichi was on his own…and a bit lonely.

Kouichi looked down at his lap and whimpered lightly. He was covered in a light layer of sweat and grime, his hair hanging limp and greasy around his thinned face, unable to wash either until the showers were defrosted. He looked and felt generally miserable.

"I want to go home, Kouji."

The slightly-younger of the twins moved before his mind quite understood what he was doing. His arms were instantly around his brother, pulling him into a warm, protective embrace.

"It'll be okay, Nii-san." He whispered, holding him closer. "We wouldn't be here if there wasn't a reason. Ophanimon…Seraphimon… one of them has to have a reason for us being here. We can do this, Nii-san, just hold on."

One hand wormed under his brother's shirt, coming to rest over the purple mark inscribed on his side. Kouichi's hand did the same, gently brushing against the pale blue marking that his brother bore.

"They brought us here." Kouji said again, more firmly. "They'll get us back home. I know they will."

The curtain slid open as the brothers broke apart, ushering in a petite Japanese nurse in a faded blue dress. "Is everything all right, boys?"

"We're fine, Yamaguchi-san." Kouichi sighed, standing. "I…need to go. I'll be back later, Kouji."

"Yeah…see you later." Kouji watched his brother leave, then let out a heavy sigh and accepted the medicine the nurse held out for him.

**( - ) ( - ) ( - )**

Kouichi was walking through the snow back to the bunks all by himself when someone grabbed him. He struggled at first, thinking it might be the guards from before, but then a low shushing noise filled his ears with a rather familiar tone.

"Daniel! Wha-"

"Shhh!" The Kanbara covered the other boy's mouth with his hand. "Keep it quiet, Minamoto!"

Once he was satisfied that the other boy would hold his tongue, Daniel took his hand away. There was a nervous sort of excited grin spread over his pleasantly tanned face, the sort of glow it hadn't held for days practically radiating out.

Kouichi smile a bit, wary. "You look…happy."

"Do I?" Daniel's eyes twinkled a bit, and he pulled Kouichi's arm eagerly. "Come on, I've got something big to show you."

Kouichi let himself be lead through the snow, noting that Daniel was carefully covering their tracks behind him. He was lead to what appeared to be a refurbished storage shed, the door rather hastily mended with a few nailed-in boards, most of the drafty holes covered by a set of heavy curtains.

The inside was not much more impressive. Furnished with only a tattered couch, two wooden crates, and a couple of cushions, it looked roughly like the rest of the camp. Including the dozen or so young-to-middle-aged Japanese men scattered around. Many of them had eyed the door suspiciously when they entered, but relaxed upon realizing that both boys were Japanese.

A thirty-something man pushed his glasses up his nose contemplatively. "Kanbara-kun." He said in a quiet voice, giving the teen a slight nod. "Who is this?"

"Minamoto Kouichi. The roommate I told you about." Daniel squeezed through the gaps of the small crowd to push Kouichi into a tattered cushion. "He was out the night the guard was killed."

"_Really?"_ The group went quiet all at once, all eyes focused on Kouichi, who squirmed a bit.

A man leaned forward and put his large hand on the smaller shoulder. "Tell us, lad, did'ja see 'em?

"Who?"

"The rats who killed that guard and framed Harry-nii." Daniel slammed his fist into the opposite hand angrily.

"It couldn't have been just one person, no matter what the brass thinks." Added an older man from the couch.

"Yeah!" Chimed in a college student against the wall. "The feds are armed, guns, knifes and all. There'd have to be enough of 'em to hold him down for somethin' like that!"

"Ueno was pretty popular around here, son." Said the man with glasses, leaning over his knees to address Kouichi. "If there's anything you can tell us to help clear his name, please speak up."

Kouichi looked at his toes, feeling overwhelmed and now a bit guilty. "I…I'm sorry." He whispered softly. "I didn't se anyone."

A small hum of nervous, disappointed whispered filled the small room, but Daniel jumped at his friend's defense. "He go snatched by some Night Guard goons before anything could happen."

More whispers. The first man pushed his glasses up again. "So, I'll tak it you're with us, then?"

"With…"

"Of course he is!" Daniel insisted. "Those creeps would've raped him if Colonel Troy hadn't shown! He's just as much against them as anyone here, right, Kouichi?"

Kouichi blushed hotly and stuttered. "A-Against what?"

"The guards!" Daniel spun and faced him with a bold expression. "Those selfish jerks who couldn't care less if everyone in this camp froze to death as long as _they_ stayed comfortable!"

"The ones who steal food from the kitchens and clothes from the wash!" Shouted a teen from the back, and was met by eager agreements.

"The ones who'd shoot a yellow man dead for sneezing in the snow!" Barked another, and he was met with cheers.

"We'll get 'em back for all of it, just you wait!" Daniel jumped onto one of the crates, balancing on the very corner and holding onto the roof to hold his place. "Colonel Troy and his unit will back us up, no problem! And when they do, the rest of 'em are gonna run scared right back to their mamas!"

Cheers rang through the shed, accompanied by whoops and claps. Kouichi drew back into his seat with a wince, the loud noise bothering his ears and his natural comfort zone. An over-eager college student put an arm around the boy's shoulder, prompting another pained wince and a cringe.

Kouichi took in a hesitant gulp, shrinking away from the twenty-something as best he could to get the room to speak. "Wh-What are you guys planning to do?"

The man from before spoke this time, clearing his throat. "We will conduct a peaceful protest to voice our complaints against the men governing this unit. But if the injustices, that is, more than what the Law has taken from us, continue to occur, we will be forced to take more…drastic…methods."

Kouichi's throat went dry and he swallowed hesitantly. "You mean…a fight?"

"Not just a fight." Daniel's grin took an almost vicious tone as his eyes glistened. "We're counting on a rebellion."

**( - ) ( - ) ( - )**

Kouichi left the 'meeting' feeling rather dazed, confused and nauseous all at the same time. The group's plan was not quite as drastic as Daniel had made it seem, but it still left some terrifying consequences. They planned to instigate a camp-wide protest against the guards, eventually molding into an uprising if that was what it took to stop the abuse. But if the protests didn't work, the rush for the guards to chase them from Manzanar would be…terrible…

The whole situation made Kouichi feel physically sick.

Daniel, on the other hand, was practically skipping with barely-contained excitement.

"Tonight's the night!" He laughed in an almost giddy, though muted, manner. "Torikawa and the guys are spreading the word. It all goes down at dinner time!"

Kouichi, who was curled on the cot he and Kouji normally shared, buried up to his chin in the thin blankets, gazed at his roommate anxiously.

"Do…Do you really think it will work, Daniel?" He asked softly.

"Of course it will!" Daniel's grin widened. "Think about it - we interns outnumber the guards ten to one! If all of us pull together, there's no way we can loose!"

Kouichi bit his lip. He couldn't shake the queasy feeling building up in his stomach, the steadily-growing dread that somehow, in some way, something as going to go horribly, terrible wrong.

Daniel didn't share his anxious sentiments, dropping back onto his bed with a delightfully light-hearted grin.

"Just you wait." He sighed, grinning from ear to ear. "This time tomorrow, everything's going to change, just like Harry-nii always wanted…"

A sinking realization fell into the pit of Kouichi's stomach, along with a few distilled commands from hi dumbstruck mind. Before he'd quite realized what he was doing, his feet were snuggly in his shoes and his body was in route to the door.

"I…I'm going to go see Kouji!" He stammered his excuse, and left Daniel on his own without another word.

**( - ) ( - ) ( - )**

"Kouji…Kouji!"

The younger twin was startled out of his muddled half-sleep by his brother's whispered urgency. Kouichi was leaning over his brother's bedside, gently shaking Kouji by the shoulder with a worried, almost terrified expression.

Kouji sat up, instantly alert. "What is it?"

"They're turning against the guards!" Kouichi gasped, grabbing Kouji's hand with both of his own. "They're going to get someone killed, Kouji!"

"Nii-san, calm down!"

Kouichi stopped and took a deep, steadying breath, trying to cal his racing hearts. Kouji waited until the flush in the elder twin's cheeks faded away before he decided to speak again. "Now, tell me what's wrong."

"It's Daniel." Kouichi whispered. "And some of the men. They're planning to lead an attack against the guards. _Tonight._"

"That's crazy!" Kouji hissed through his teeth. "The guards are armed. It'll be a massacre!"

"I know." Kouichi's face swept into a definite frown. "But I can't stop them. Daniel's too hyped up to even listen to me."

Kouji frowned as well, gripping the sheets between his fists. The whole idea was…_nuts_. There was no way the half-starved, freezing camp interns could stand up against the trained, healthy, armed guards and live to tell the tale. It was madness.

"And there's more." Kouichi's whisper was soft and fearful. "I'm starting to think that this…or something like it…is what Ueno-san was pushing for all along."

Before Kouji could ask what he meant, a resounding siren rang through the camp. Both twins stiffened and jumped, knowing exactly what it meant.

"Dinner time." Kouji muttered.

Kouichi nodded, gulping in his dry throat as he turned his eyes fearfully to the window. "It's starting."

**TBC…**


	7. Rioting Fear

As a matter of fact - in December 1942, the only know uprising of Japanese-American interns occurred in the Manzanar, California location, following the murder of a guard and the arrest of Nissei Harry Ueno. The result? Well…

"Japanese"

"_Thinking"_

"English"

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kouji, Kouichi or anything else involved with Digimon Frontier. I'm just a bit of a history buff._

**Manzanar**

**Chapter 7: Rioting Fear**

Barely two minutes after the sirens had quieted, there came the sound of quiet chanting from somewhere far away, growing steadily louder and closer by the second. As it grew more and more, the doctors and nurses began to disappear, some to the very back of the hospital and some running out the door to see what the ruckus was.

Kouji jumped out of the hospital bed, pulling his jacket over his pajamas as he did, and yanked on his shoes. He seized Kouichi by the wrist and dragged them both to the door.

At the doorway, both twins stopped dead and stared in horror.

There was a mob gathering outside, a noisy, crowded, angry mob of men, women and children from all reaches of the camp. They were 'armed', such as they were, with brooms and rakes and several different plasterboard signs. All about and through them, a few noticeably young men were leading several different half-Japanese, half-English variations of the standard, 'One-Two-Three-Four' protest chant.

"Oh no…" Kouichi gulped, moving closer to his brother. "Kouji, look."

The younger twin did as he said, gripping his brother's hand protectively. There was a line of guards starting to form along the pathway to the mess hall. Through a series of rapid orders, they were drawing together to block the marcher's path. All were armed with rifles or handguns.

"Look." Kouji muttered, motioning to the end of the line. "It's Troy."

The Colonel was walking along the line, his body tense even though his hands rested behind his back. "Hold all fire." He ordered, voice floating in the twin's direction as he neared. "Do not shoot. We do not want a massacre."

Kouichi let out a sigh of relief. "They're not going to shoot!"

"They've been _ordered_ not to." Kouji corrected, eyes narrowing sharply. "But that won't stop them. If they're attacked, someone is bound to…"

He dropped off, noticing the pained look on his brother's face. "What do we do, Kouji?"

The younger brother gripped his hand a bit tighter. "We've got to try and stop them." He puttered. "And even if we can't ,we can at least get someone away…Daniel, Troy, anybody! We have to try!"

Kouichi nodded and let his brother lead him down the steps and into the heart of the crowd.

They found Daniel not too much later, though it was not particularly hard. He had an American-flag-print bandana tied around his right arm, while his left bore a crudely-drawn Japanese equivalent. He also carried a broken metal bedpost in one hand, hoisting a poster that read 'Human' in both English and Japanese with his other.

"Daniel!" Kouji shouted over the crowd as the twins shoved their way through. "Daniel!"

Daniel turned and grinned broadly. "Hey! You're out of the hospital!"

Kouji scowled and seized the Kanbara by the shoulders. "Call this off! Now!"

"Huh?" Daniel blinked.

"You've got an in with the ones running this, right?" Kouji demanded. "You've got to get them to stop this!"

"The guards are pulling together already!" Kouichi added. "They're not going to hold back, Daniel, someone's going to be killed!"

Daniel took a step back, his expression melding from confused to angry. "You… You can't be serious!" He snapped. "We can't stop now! They're finally going to have to listen to us! After all this, you think we're just going to quit?"

"This isn't going to work!" Kouji exclaimed, but he was drowned out by the crowd's sudden collective cheer.

One of the older men from the shack had set down a large wooden crate and climbed on top of it, raising his arms to call for silence as he turned to the guards.

"Colonel." He spoke in a demanding, attentive voice. "Has it possibly occurred to you what our movement is about?"

Colonel Troy took a deep breath and stepped forward. "I could venture a guess."

"You know how some of the higher-ups have gotten." The man spoke again with steadily-growing confidence. "We are humans, not animals. This kind of treatment cannot and will not go on."

The crowd cheered. Troy said nothing. The man spoke again. "Colonel, you're not like the brass. We know you're not. Why, if anything, you're one of us."

The twins were surprised, as was Daniel. "What's he talking about?"

"Your wife and her family were departed back to Nagasaki, weren't they?" The man continued, still addressing Troy. "Even though your little brother-in-law was sick and needed treatment, he was shipped off into the ocean without any reason or access to care! Is that right, Colonel Troy? Were they any more fair to your family than they have been to us?"

There was another round of cheers. Kouichi put a hand to his mouth with a light, sympathetic whimper at the crushed expression on Troy's face. "Colonel…"

Troy was quiet for a long while until the crowd calmed. Then he looked up at the crowd leader with a heavy sigh. "No." He muttered. "It is not."

More cheers. The leader grinned and extended his hand. "You know what they are doing to us is wrong, Colonel. Help us stop them."

"It is wrong." Colonel Troy agreed softly, then waited for yet another wave of cheers to die down before he spoke again. "However, this will help nothing. All of this, all of you here, are in folly. You will only get yourselves killed!"

The man on the box narrowed his eyes. "What are you saying?"

"Even if you overcome the guards of Manzanar, the government will always send more!" Shouted Troy. "You will be beaten down, and those who survive stripped of every meager right, little more than slaves! You will be killed!"

"I'd _rather_ die than be treated like this!" Shouted a voice from the crowd, and with an angry roar, the protestors attacked.

The crowd suddenly lunged forward with resounding, echoing cries. Troy spread his arms to touch as many soldiers on the line as he could, shouting at the top of his lungs. "Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" Most of the guards complies, laying their guns horizontally to create a kind of wall, which the rioters crashed into like a wave.

Within the wave itself, people rushed o a swarm of adrenaline. Kouji, keeping one hand tangled in Daniel's clothes, reached out for his brother. "Kouichi!"

"Kouji!" Kouichi reached out, but his fingers barely brushed his brother's palm another surge of people dragged him back into the mob. "Kouji! Daniel!"

"Nii-san!" Kouji tried to rush after him, but Daniel grabbed his arm.

"Don't!" Exclaimed the Kanbara, obviously panicked. "We've got to stick together!"

"Are you insane?" Kouji demanded, but a sudden backwards lurch carried them both back to the edge of the crowd and further away from the older of the two twins.

**( - ) ( - ) ( - )**

Kouichi hit the ground hard, his skull banging against the earth from the force of the shove. Mildly stunned, he regained his sense just in time to roll to one side, narrowly avoiding a kick to the head.

He pulled himself to his hands and knees, searching through the forest of moving legs desperately. "Kouji?" He called, voice cracking under the strain. "Kouji! Kouji, answer me!"

There was another surge, pitching him head-first into the thick, slush-like mud. He'd barely pulled himself out of the slop when someone kicked him hard in the stomach, knocking the air out of him.

Muddled stars danced before his eyes and his head swam awkwardly. The noise, the crowd, the violence, it was far too much for him. He couldn't take this, not by himself, needed to…needed to…

There!

A gap in the crowd! A beam of light cutting through the forest of legs and mud, a bit of hope in all of the chaos and mess…

Kouichi moved steadily towards it, slopping through the slush and the mud, fighting past the panicked, angry people around him. His clothes were quickly soaked through, his hands raw and slightly bloody, but he pushed his way through.

As his head pushed out into the open winter air, Kouichi gulped in a desperate breath and nearly fell out of the mob, into the dirt.

He lay on the cold ground for a while before his body could recover from the adrenaline rush. His muscles were taunt and painfully tense with only recently relieved panic. He gasped for breath, closed his eyes, and silently called out for his mother.

"Get up. Come on, kid, get up!"

Kouichi groaned and opened his eyes painfully. There was a blurry shape crouching over him, a firm hand resting on his shoulder. "Come on. You've got to move! Come on, Kimura, come on!"

Kouichi blinked again and the form cleared. "Colonel…Colonel Troy?"

"Yes, that's right." The man whispered gently, supporting the boy by the shoulders. "Now, come on. We've got to get out of here."

Kouichi struggled to his feet in the soldier's grasp, his mind wandering drearily from one incomprehension to the next. "But…But Colonel…how did you know my…?"

"Not now," Troy whispered, putting an arm around the boy's shoulders to support him as they walked. "Come on, we need to go. Hurry!"

**( - ) ( - ) ( - )**

Kouji was trying to swim upstream, almost literally. He fought with both the crowd of bodies rushing against him and with Daniel, who was dragging him backwards by his sleeves almost painfully.

"Dammit, Kanbara!" Raged the long-haired boy. "Let…Me…Go!"

"You're nuts!" Daniel shouted back, his voice rising a few octaves in his own fear. "There's no way you'll find him in all of this! Everyone's totally out of control!"

Kouji snarled at him. "My brother's still in there!"

"And you getting swept away will help him how?"

There was another jerk of the crowd, one that flung the pair out of the crowd's main flow haphazardly. Daniel tripped and fell backwards, dragging Kouji down with him, and they landed in an ungraceful heap.

A deep laugh reached their ears, familiarly cruel and laced with hog-like squeals. "Well well, don't you two look like a couple of lovebirds?"

Kouji wrenched himself free of Daniel and rose to his knees, glaring furiously. "Iwamoto."

The older boy smirked down at them, flanked as always by his two identical goons. Iwamoto looked relatively smug and happy, which meant that something wasn't going well for someone else.

"Isn't this fun?" Smirked the bully brightly. "It's about time something exciting happened around this dump."

"Exciting?" Daniel exclaimed leaping to his feet. "Do you have any idea what we're trying to do here?"

"I couldn't give a damn." Snapped Iwamoto. "All I know is, there's going to be a lot of changes around here. And your 'big, tough nii-san' Ueno isn't around to save your ass anymore, Kanbara!"

He lunged, catching Daniel under the chin with a powerful sucker punch. Daniel stumbled backwards and nearly fell again, especially when another great fist slammed into his nose.

Iwamoto's grin turned wild and animalistic, the demonic joy of a bully found in watching another person suffer at his hand. "You don't know how long I've been waiting to do this!"

"Then you'll just have to wait longer."

Kouji's voice was followed by a hard strike to the bully's cheek, with all the might his arm and shoulders could muster rolled together. Iwamoto stumbled back several feet, clutching a busted, bleeding lip.

"You…" He glared at Kouji. "You miserable little bastard!"

Kouji gave the other a sour glare. "I don't have time to mess with you."

Iwamoto turned scarlet.

Kouji ignored him and turned back to Daniel, hoisting him up by the arm. "Come on."

"But…"

"_Daniel._" Kouji growled, his mind still on his brother and a firm glare in his eyes. "We're going. Now."

Daniel narrowed his eyes at him, then glared at Iwamoto instead. "He's…"

"He's not worth it."

"Oh, I'm not?"

Kouji glanced back just in time to barely avoid a small rock that had been thrown at his head. Iwamoto had gone an odd shade of chartreuse, similar to the color he had become during the fight in the rain, but now he wore a long, sharp snarl of a grin.

"I'm not worth it, am I?" He took another rock from the bundle he had clutched in his hand and hurled it at Kouji again. "Not worth your precious time? I'll show you how 'worth it' I am!"

Even his Flunkies looked concerned. "Daisuke…"

"Dai, come on…Calm down…"

"What if I told you that I killed that guard?" Roared Iwamoto wildly. "Would you think I'm worth it _then_?"

"You _what_?" Daniel shouted, lunging, but Kouji caught him before he could.

"You heard me!" Snarled Iwamoto with a maniacal grin. "That son of a bitch had it coming after all the beatings he gave me! So this time, I beat him back! Sure, maybe we went a little overboard, right boys? Sure, maybe we went a little overboard, right boys?" The Lankies glanced at each other nervously, obviously sickened by the thought. "But it's about time someone guts to do what we all wanted to! By myself, I'm braver than all of you put together!"

Kouji gritted his teeth and dug his fingers into Daniel's wrist. "Don't even try it. He's gone completely nuts."

Iwamoto seemed to confirm this turning to the massive, mob-like crowd with out-stretched arms. "Now look at this! All of it! This is all because of what I did! It's all because of me!"

Kouji got a sudden sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach, a terrible pain of dread that slipped right into his throat. "Daniel…" He gripped the boy's arm. "We need to move."

"But…"

"Now!"

Before either of them could move or do anything more, they were suddenly shoved to one side as a Lanky pushed past them, a terrified expression on his pale face. "Daisuke!"

"Iwo, stop!" Shouted his partner, but the other didn't listen and neither did Iwamoto, who was still laughing crazily.

Daniel glanced back at the other Lanky and jerked at Kouji's arm. "Minamoto!"

Kouji looked up and froze at the sight of a cold, dark gun barrel aimed directly at their little group. Specifically, it was aimed at the still-laughing bully, who continued to blindly proclaim his own imagined skill.

"All of this!" Shouted the crazed young Nissei with a wild laugh. "All 'cause of me! This is all because of me!"

Somewhere near, a man's voice was yelling. "Hold your fire! _Hold your fire!_"

"Dai!" Shouted the Lanky, lunging.

And a gunshot rang out over the noise of the mob.

_**TBC…**_


	8. Gun Shot

"Japanese"

"_Thinking"_

"English"

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kouji, Kouichi or anything else involved with Digimon Frontier. I'm just a bit of a history buff._

**Manzanar**

**Chapter 8: Gunshot**

Kouichi's heart stopped dead as the echo of gunshots rang through the crowd, but it started up again when, over the panicked chaos of the frightened crowd, a familiar haunting cry of pain struck his ears like a razorblade.

"Kouji!" screamed the older twin, though his voice was drowned out by the crowd again. "Kouji!"

He scrambled forward and lunged in the direction of his brother's anguished cries. But before he'd gone even three steps, a pair of long, strong arms wrapped around his waist, holding him still.

"Don't!" Shouted Colonel Troy, dragging the boy back a few bare feet. "Stay low! Don't go running out there!"

"But…But Kouji!" Kouichi struggled against the older man's arms even as he was hauled back away from the mob. "He's hurt! Let me go…Let me go! Kouji!"

Troy grunted and tightened his grip, dragging the struggling teen bodily through the frightened, rushing runoff of the crowd as people hurried away from the gunfire in wild confusion.

"Listen to me!" He insisted, shouting over the screams and cries. "You can't help him like this! If you want to reach him, you have to calm down, Kimura-kun! Trust me!"

Kouichi stopped struggling and rested his hands on Troy's arms. He tuned back slowly to stare at the Colonel in bewilderment.

"Colonel," he whispered slowly, cautiously, "how do you know my surname?"

Troy winced a bit. "Your…Your brother…"

"He introduced us both as Minamoto!" Kouichi exclaimed, wrenching free and backing away slightly. "He did that so…so they'd keep us together. So how could you know…What's going on here? Who are you?"

"Cease fire! Cease! _Hold your fire!_"

Kouichi spun around at the now-familiar voice from behind. Pushing through the frantic crowd, yelling desperate, unheeded orders to the lines of panicked troops, was a blonde man dressed in army fatigues, his hawk-like green eyes scanning the crowd as he moved. The man who looked startlingly identical to the one standing behind Kouichi now…

"Colonel…?"

"Get down!"

Kouichi barely had time to comprehend the warning before he was tackled from behind, pressed into the ground as a rain of bullets flew over their heads once more. The man who had saved him…this time…wasn't the real Colonel Troy.

But then…who was he?

**( - ) ( - ) ( - )**

As a searing blade of pain shot up arm and spine, Kouji couldn't help the strangled cry that burst from his lips. His left had shot to grip his right arm, just below the shoulder, where crimson blood was starting to flow past the torn sleeve of his shirt and jacket.

"Minamoto!" Exclaimed Daniel, hurriedly waving away as much of the enveloping clouds of smoke and dust has he could. "Your arm…!"

Kouji gritted his teeth. "Just…clipped." He growled softly, squinting through the haze. "What happened to Iwamoto?"

"Beats me." Daniel yanked the American flag-print bandana from his arm and wrapped it tightly around the burning, bleeding wound. "But I hope they blew his brains out, the bastard."

Kouji opened his mouth to say something, but what ever it had been was lost in a stab of pain as the bandana tightened sharply over the gaping, bleeding hole. "Ow! Dammit, Kanbara!"

"Sorry." Daniel winced apologetically. "We've got to stop the bleeding or it will just get…"

"Hell." Kouji growled again, but this time it was with the tone of one who distinctly does not like what he is seeing.

Daniel followed the twin's path of sight through the clearing smoke and sand, then took in a sharp hiss through his teeth. "Oh, hell no."

Iwamoto was alive. Though whether he was any better of than he had been was another matter all together.

The large boy was lying flat on his back in the slush-like ground, apparently knocked unconscious from his fall, his limbs curled slightly under him.

Lying over him, and indeed, on top of him, was the lanky boy who had, seconds before, been running to warn him of the approaching danger. The long, thin limbs were splayed out in a distinctive spread-eagle fashion, eyes and mouth both hanging open wide in shock. His hands hung open with limp fingers spread over them, and there were three distinct red holes smoking in his chest.

The other Lanky lifted slowly from his position face-down on the ground, staring blankly. "I…Iwo?"

"No…No way…" Daniel gulped, shaking his head slowly in disbelief. "He's… our age…He can't really be…"

"Dead." Muttered Kouji, simply and firmly.

"But…" Daniel was still staring right in front of him in shaken, shocked horror. "They weren't…weren't supposed to shoot!"

Kouji let out an annoyed groan, but before he could say anything more, Daisuke Iwamoto started to move.

"Iwo…" The bully groaned painfully, sounding quite a bit more sensible than he had before. "What do you think you're doing, moron?"

Kouji raised an eyebrow. Maybe the knock on the head was just was the freak had needed to bring him out of his god complex and back into some sort of sanity.

Daniel frowned a bit. "Iwamoto…"

"Get offa me, you oaf!" Groaned the older boy again, giving the Lanky a hard shove. He seemed rather surprised when the thin form dropped off without much force or fight on his part at all. The body slumped into the ground and lay still.

"…Iwo?"

"Iwo!" Shouted the other Lanky, rushing over and shaking the body. "Iwo…Iwo, say something! Iwo, please! Iwo!"

For the first time, Iwamoto was shocked utterly and completely speechless. One strong, pudgy had reached out for the body, shaking slightly. "Iwo…Iwo…"

"…DAMMIT!" Iwamoto slammed his fist into the ground. "Dammit all! Iwo!"

Daniel bit his lip and stepped forward, holding out one hand both kindly and hesitantly. "Iwamoto…"

"This your fault." Sneered the older boy, gripping his fists angrily and glaring up at Daniel. "Iwo's dead…and it's all your fault, Kanbara!"

"My fault?" Daniel raged, his sympathetically outstretched hand twisting into a fist. "How the hell is it _my_ fault?" You're the one who killed that guard, framed Harry-nii…"

"And it was _you_ and your friends who started this mob!" Iwamoto shot back, jumping to his feet and advancing on the Kanbara fiercely. "Iwa didn't get shot 'cause of that guard! He got it because they're scared of this mob, scared of you and your goddamn, stupid friends!"

Daniel snarled. "We're doing a hell of a lot more than you ever could!"

"Wise up!" Iwamoto shouted, now almost nose-to-nose with the smaller boy. "You haven't done nothing! They ain't never gonna see us as anything more than a bunch of…"

"Enough!"

Kouji suddenly appeared between the two arguing bodies, planting a hand on each of their chests and shoving them apart almost roughly.

"This is not the time for your stupid arguments!" He announced in a harsh, could voice. "If we don't move _now_, that kid's not going to be the only one dead!"

Iwamoto backed off and growled at the long-haired boy harshly. "Why the hell should I listen to you, Minamoto?"

Kouji matched him glare for glare. "'Cause if you don't, you'll be dead by the end of the night. Is that good enough for you?"

Iwamoto growled again, but kept quiet.

"Good." Kouji's eyes shot to the remaining Lanky, who was looking up from his place on the ground. Kouji's blue eyes softened. "Hey, you. Get …Get him outta here. Some place where nobody will mess with him until he's…buried."

The Lanky nodded in understanding and, without another word or glance, hoisted his friend over his back and hobbled off towards the bunks. Kouji turned his eyes back to the other two.

"Daniel." He hissed calmly. "You've got to get ahold of the group from before. The ones who started this thing. They've got to be the ones to call it off, to call for a truce."

"You're nuts!" Daniel's brown eyes widened, slightly wild. "We've gone so far, we can't just…"

Another round of gunshots echoed from the other side of the crowd, causing all three of the tense boys to jump.

"You _better_ be able to!" Kouji snapped. "'Cause if anyone else gets killed - any of the family or the innocents - it really _will_ be your group's fault!"

Daniel paled a bit, but took off into the thinning crowd to search out his fellow 'conspirators'.

Iwamoto narrowed his eyes. "And what about me, Minamoto?"

Kouji glared at him. "_You_ get out there and try to get everyone out of here."

Iwamoto frowned. 'And take them where?"

"Anywhere." Kouji muttered. "Anywhere they'll be safe, away from the guards and the guns, away from everything until it settles down. You got it?"

"Fine." The bully broke away and started off, but turned back before he got too far. "You gonna rat on me? About Ueno?"

Kouji smirked. "Only if you get anyone else killed."

Iwamoto sniffed. "Fine then."

As the bully vanished, Kouji's smirk faded. His hands moved to grip his side painfully and bit his lip to muffle an undignified groan.

When had this started? When he'd gotten shot? It must have been some time in that period of agony, when the overwhelming pain of the bullet wound had masked the rising blistering pain from his side. He hadn't reached for it before, simply because he didn't want Daniel to freak out again, but now…it as all he could do to stay on his feet.

One hand slipped past the cloth of his shirt and gently rubbed the aching point, checking it for blood or swelling. All his fingers found was the slightly rough patch of skin that was Lobomon's tattoo-mark…

It was then that Kouji realized what was happening, and just as quickly as the idea set in he was hobbling along the parameter of the frantic mob, stumbling unsteadily but keeping his features set and serious.

"Kouichi…" He muttered to himself, a reminder of his goal. "Nii-san…We have to go…"

**( - ) ( - ) ( - )**

Kouichi lay on the muddy, snow-soaked earth, his tattered, thin camouflage-print shirt riding up past his stomach. His hands clutched at the exposed flesh, cupped over his side, a point of searing pain that was sending spasms up and down his entire body.

If half his head hadn't been nearly completely submerged in mud and slush, he could have been crying. The flaming pain jerking up his body was comparable to having a white-hot iron pressed into his skin, and it had struck him so suddenly he thought he'd been shot. But all his desperate, grouping hands hand found was the purple March etched mysteriously into his skin…

"Kimura." A voice suddenly cut into his thoughts. "Kouichi. Come on, can you hear me?"

Kouichi rolled over, still gripping his side, and looked up blurrily. "Colonel?"

"That's right." The face of Colonel troy smiled softly, holding the boy by his shoulders. "Come on, get up. We need to get out of here."

Kouichi moaned. "It hurts…"

"I know it does." Troy soothed gently, pulling him to his feet. "But you need to move anyway. That pain means it's time to leave. We have to get out of here, you and me."

Kouichi's vision was blurry, his steps awkward and uncertain. "Kou…ji?"

"Yeah. Kouji, too."

Kouichi shook himself slightly and found that he was holding onto the soldier for support. His short-term memory had kicked in, sending strangely muddled pictures of the last few minutes dancing in front of his eyes.

"You…" He looked up at the man supporting him with a soft, knowing gaze. "You're not the Colonel, are you?"

The man's gentle smile seemed familiar. "No. I'm not."

"Kouichi!"

The older twin snapped his head up and smiled. "Kouji…"

The other boy was stumbling towards them, a slight smirk worming out from under a grimace of pain. He was clutching his side, and he stumbled haphazardly in a profoundly uncharacteristic manner.

At the realization of his brother's pain, Kouichi instantly forgot his own. Gasping Kouji's name, the older twin burst away from his kindly guardian and rushed to his other's side.

"Kouji, what's wrong?" Kouichi asked, frightened by the look on his brother's face. "Are you hurt? Oh, Kouji…"

"I'm fine." Kouji cracked a sort of grin to try and comfort his brother. "Don't worry about me, Nii-san. Are you all right?"

"I'm okay…" Kouichi's eyes fell worriedly on Kouji's right arm, recognizing the bandana. "What happened to Daniel-kun?"

"He's fine." Kouji assured gently. "He's getting the leaders together to call and end to this-they're going to back off, before anyone else gets killed."

"Oh, thank god…" Kouichi relaxed for a moment, then tensed as the second part of the sentence registered. "Wait, anyone _else_?"

Kouji's eyes darkened. "One of Iwamoto's goons got shot. He's dead."

Kouichi sucked in a breath through his teeth. "And Iwamoto?"

"Coping. At least he's doing something usefully." Kouji smirked. "He's getting as many families back to the bunks as possible. Unbelievable?"

"Not really." Kouichi smiled. Kouji rolled his eyes.

Suddenly, a deeper voice, that of the fake Colonel Troy, burst through their conversation. "Watch out!"

The twins spun back around. There was a guard…the cigarette-smoking leader of the creeps who'd jumped Kouichi…was approaching them from the side not covered by the now-dispersing crowd. He had a hand gun drawn and a wild expression on his face as he advanced.

"One less Jap." He sneered, clicking the hammer into place. "One less problem."

Kouji acted much more quickly than either brother or attacker could quite register. Kouichi found himself tumbling backwards quite unexpectedly, realizing with horror that Kouji was now the one directly in the path of the bullet as the crazed guard pulled the trigger…

"No!"

And then…it was gone.

_**To Be Concluded…**_


	9. Around to the End

**A Gemini Star Announcement: **I will be out of town for the next week or so, visiting relatives on my father's side of the family in Austin. As such, updating will be limited, except perhaps around Wednesday or so when I hope to access my e-mail and get the beta of the next KoEH chapter set up. See you then.

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kouji, Kouichi or anything else involved with Digimon Frontier. I'm just a bit of a history buff._

**Manzanar**

**Chapter 9: Around to the End**

Kouichi stared around him in shock, panting heavily. He was on the ground, as expected after such a fall, but he was not wrist-and-ankle deep in mud as he should have been. Instead, he was nearly submerged in cool, moist silver mist, swirling and hovering over an unseen ground that felt as smooth as glass. The fog glowed a bit with a dim violet light of its own, which was good, because the only other thing in this…place…was darkness.

Kouichi's eyes widened a bit in recognition as his eyes drifted up to the never-ending darkness, laced with a few washed-out shades of purple, almost like clouds. "I've been here…"

Just in front of him, Kouji was standing with his arms raised in a hopeless defense. When he realized that his apparently swift death had, in fact, not occurred, he peaked between his arms to view the sudden change of surrounding for the first time.

"What the…" He turned around, eyes wide. "Nii-san?"

"I'm okay." Gulped the older twin, pulling himself slowly to his feet. "And Kouji…I've been here before."

"Indeed you have."

Both boys jumped and spun around. Behind them was a relatively young solider, an officer, with blonde hair and a pleasant, warm smile. "This is a sub-pocket of the Digital world, a sort of transition zone buffering the two worlds so they do not abrade each other too much.

Kouji blinked and took a step back, his body tensing. "Colonel…Colonel Troy?"

"No, Kouji." Kouichi smiled up at the man. "He's the other Colonel, the one who came to get us. "

"That's right." Troy's face smiled pleasantly and the man nodded. "Though don't think the real Colonel wasn't a help - he was the one watching out for you in the camp."

"He saved me." Kouichi nodded in understanding. "And all those times with Iwamoto…that was him, too. The real Troy."

Kouji didn't understand at all, and it was obvious on his face. "But then...who _are_ you?"

The second Colonel laughed, a deep familiar sound that echoed nicely through the shadows. As the sound faded away, so did the image of the man, reveal instead black armor lined with soft, bright gold…

A wide smile spread over Kouichi's face. "Lowemon!" He gasped, coming to greet his warrior friend with a happy hug.

The Warrior of Darkness chuckled behind his mask and returned the embrace warmly. "I am glad to find you safe, my friends."

Kouji followed after his brother a bit more slowly, but his expression was much more bewildered. "But how…why…"

"Lobomon wanted to come as well, but…" Lowemon's smile echoed in his brown eyes again. "We simply did not have the energy for a round trip all four."

"That's not what I mean!" Kouji exclaimed. "I _mean_ what's going on here? What the hell is this all about? What's been happening to us?"

Lowemon smiled at the two boys behind his mask, taking a step back from them both and bowing slightly at the waist. "Before I begin, Ophanimon wished me to… apologize."

"For what?" Kouichi asked.

"For not warning the two of you before sending you off." Sighed the warrior. "However, we all agreed it was truly for the best…"

"For the _best_?" Kouji exclaimed. "We got dropped into that hell-hole of a camp for two months for the _best_?"

Lowemon raised a placating hand. "Please, allow me to explain."

"Explain _what_?"

"Kouji, please." Kouichi urged, touching his brother's arm. Kouji sighed, but forced himself to calm down. Kouichi smiled and nodded to his 'alter ego' warmly. "Please continue, Lowemon."

Lowemon nodded and cleared his throat lightly. "We weren't able to tell you beforehand because it was necessary to prevent as much needless alteration of past events as possible."

"Needless alteration?" Kouji raised a skeptical eyebrow.

Lowemon nodded with a distant expression in his deep brown eyes. "Had you known the details of what was going to happen at Manzanar that day, you would no doubt have tried to prevent it, would you not?"

Both twins nodded automatically. "However, that is precisely what we could not allow."

"But why?" Kouji demanded. "That was a disaster!"

"True." Lowemon sighed. "But it was a disaster that we needed to occur…and that they two of you needed to be a part of."

Kouichi blinked and turned his head in a curious manner. "What do you mean?"

"Who's 'we'?" Kouji scowled.

"'We' is really more like 'they'…The Three Angels." Lowemon looked off into the distance thoughtfully. "And Baromon, actually. He was one who uncovered the modification in the time line…Lucemon's fault. He tried to rearrange the Digital World's history before his defeat, attempting to eliminate the Ten before they even existed."

Kouji frowned. "How?"

"Reaching backwards in time, Lucemon eliminated a key character - a young orphan boy living in the camp. The change was so minute that it almost went completely unnoticed. If we hadn't found it when we did, the entire history of the Digital World would have fallen to pieces."

Kouichi blinked again in confusion. "But then…why send us?"

"By the time the alteration was found, it was too late to return the boy to his place - his personal timeline was set in permanence. We needed someone there who would do the same as the missing child, one whose personality would react in an exactly similar way." Lowemon's brown eyes fell on Kouji and reflected a hint of amusement. "Luckily, there was already a match readily available."

Kouji pointed to himself, and when Lowemon nodded, he scowled. "So why send both of us?"

Lowemon's eyes brightened a bit more. "Because the two of you always take care of each other. It wouldn't do for you to die before you were even born, now would it?"

Kouji glanced at his brother, who smiled at him before turning back to Lowemon. "So the Digimon _were_ behind it all, just like we thought."

"But…" Kouji let the scowl slide from his face, but he still crossed his arms over his chest in annoyance. "We didn't _do_ anything."

Lowemon laughed. "You did more than you know."

"Like what?"

"Surly you haven't forgotten Daniel already." Lowemon chuckled. "After the failed uprising, that boy became quite a bit more contentious about his actions. That alone probably saved his life, and in his peace of mind he began to miss his family. Eventually, he allowed himself to be deported to Japan, where he was married to a nice young girl. And then, two generations later…"

"Takuya." Both twins chorused. The resemblance had been obvious from the start.

"Indeed." Lowemon nodded. "And not just him. Daisuke Iwamoto remained in America after his release from the camp, completely reformed. He turned over a new leaf after watching his friend die to protect him. He entered the military as soon as he could, the only Japanese-American unit of the war, and played a crucial point in several battles. After retiring with a Purple Heart, he spent the rest of his life to anti-violence campaigns. It was a complete reform."

"Wow." Kouichi whispered in a bit of awe. "That's great!"

Lowemon nodded. "Of course, Colonel Troy - the real one - is the real kicker. Though his only family…that is, his wife's family…was caught in the Nagasaki bombing and killed, he managed to carry on. Turned against violence and the war by both the uprising and his family's death, he quit the military as soon as he was allowed to. In memory of his younger brother-in-law, who always loved electronics and computers, he moved to Japan and became a programmer. Eventually, a basic viral-defense program of his because the basis for the Ten Warriors ourselves."

"Troy did all that?" Kouji deadpanned, obviously surprised.

"Indeed he did." Lowemon nodded. "And it was the influence of that riot, and of the actions and experiences of one brave boy…or rather now, the two of you…that made the difference for Troy, Iwamoto and Daniel all the same.

"So, do you understand now, why we had to do what we did?"

Kouji sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, I guess."

"Good." Lowemon smiled, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. "And now it's time for you two to be getting back to your really lives."

Before either of the twins could quite register what this meant, the Warrior of Darkness gave them a light push and they both toppled backwards into the vast, unending void.

**( - )**

"Kimura-san!"

Kouichi shot awake and nearly fell out of his desk. He blinked up at the stern, annoyed face of his teacher, her arms crossed over her chest. "Y-Yes, sensei?"

The teacher's angry expression tightened as several of his classmates giggled. "Since you seem so confident about your knowledge of the subject, please be so kind as to answer question four from the board."

Kouichi turned his head slightly, getting a good look at the classroom that part of him knew so well, but another part found it completely alien, then looked up at the board for his question:

"**#4 - Where did the only known event of detainee insurrection during the American interment of Japanese immigrant internment occur?"**

Kouichi stared at the question for a long while, and the answer burst from his lips before his mind had quite registered it. "Manzanar."

The teacher raised her eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Manzanar, California." Kouichi said quietly, looking back up at her. "In 1942... December, ma'am."

If the teacher was surprised, which she probably was, she did a rather nice job of not showing it.

"Correct. Very well, then." She turned on her heel and marched to the front of the room. "Let's continue with the lecture, then."

But Kouichi couldn't listen to the lecture. He spent the rest of class counting down the seconds to the end of school, and asking the same question over and over in his mind.

"_Was it all just a dream…?"_

**( - )**

When school let out, Kouichi forgot his normal swing by the library to head straight out the school gates and to the park. It was his meeting place with Kouji, a hill that overlooked the entire area of city. They had to meet…had to talk…

"Kouichi!"

The older twin spun around. Kouji was coming up the side of the hill, pushing his bike as he did. He was out of breath, and it was apparent that he'd ridden over as quickly as he could.

Kouichi sighed with relief. "_He made it!"_

"Kouji!" He hurried to meet his brother and help. It was also the perfect chance to get close enough that, even if anyone was nearby, they wouldn't be overheard. "Hey…did you…"

"Yeah, I checked." Kouji sighed, running a hand through his finally-clean ponytail. "The mark's completely gone. Yours too?"

Kouichi nodded. "Not a trace of it…"

Kouji sighed. "Typical. Drop us right back in like nothing happened…that's so like them."

Kouichi sighed as well, but his was more concerned than anything else. "Kouji…did all of that really happen? I mean…it wasn't just a dream?"

"No." Kouji smirked and reached into his pocket. "It definitely happened."

He out a flat piece of cloth, a bandana, decorated with the pattern of the American stars and stripes. Running vertically across it were several more stripes of red, these dark and lightly crispy - dried blood, as though the cloth had been wrapped around a wound.

Kouichi stared at it a moment as they came to a stop at the top of the hill, then smiled. "Daniel?"

"Daniel." Kouji reached up and tied the cloth tightly around the silver handlebars of his bike. The loose ends of the knot blew quietly in the wind without a sound.

For a moment, they just looked at it, then Kouji sighed again and mounted the bike. "Hop on. We gotta go."

"Where?" Kouichi asked, planting his foot on one of the spokes of the back wheel. He swung the other leg over and rested his foot on the opposite spine, balancing skillfully on the balls of his feet.

"Takuya's." Kouji's smirk widened. "He wants us to meet his grandfather."

Kouichi smiled as well, centering his gravity with his brother's. "Let's go, then."

Kouji kicked off and only had to pedal a few times before gravity took over. As the bike fell over the edge of the hill and started down the sidewalk, the gleam of the city below hit their eyes, and something delightful just seemed to fill them both.

So they laughed.

**Fin.**

_Historical notes:_ Manzanar Camp in southern California was one of the first camps established for Japanese-American Internment after the Pearl Harbor bombing in 1941. In December 1945, a guard was found murdered within the camp, and a popular cook named Harry Ueno (also called Donnie Niwa by some records) was arrested in connection with the crime, though no hard evidence was ever found.

A few days later, the only recorded incident of internment rebellion occurred in the form of a riot within the camp. Gunshots were fired, leaving two second-generation Japanese immigrants (Niisei) dead. Afterwards, there no problems of such a magnitude for the remainder of the internment, which ended with the war.

Manzanar is a memorial to that period of internment.


End file.
